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A Christmas Tale (2008) Certificate 15

A Christmas Tale
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Rated 2.5 stars
Average rating
(54%)
 
Starring: Catherine Deneuve | Mathieu Amalric | Chiara Mastroianni | Melvil Poupaud | Anne Consigny | Emmanuelle Devos | Hippolyte Girardot | Samir Guesmi
Director: Arnaud Desplechin
Studio: DRAKES AVENUE PICTURES
Run time: 150 mins
Genres: World Cinema
Languages: French
Released: June 01, 2009

"A Christmas Story" is a tragically comic tale of love, death, and familial strife and forgiveness. The film centers around the strife and heartache in one family, over the course of decades, and how tragedy can bring them together despite all the odds.

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Rating of 2 stars out of 5
Time Out

It may still be Christmas for the troubled Vuillard clan in the northwest French town of Roubaix but its not shared...

Highest rated reviews

4 out of 4 people found the following review helpful:

Rated 1 stars
Very confusing

A Customer from UK, 16th June, 2009

Very disjointed story line. Very little explanation as to why people behaviour the way they do. No sympathetic characters. Got boring.

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1 out of 1 people found the following review helpful:

Rated 1 stars
Unforgiveably dull

hardpressedmother from , 19th September, 2009

This has all the ingredients to make an intriguing film, a medical dilemma within a family - which member of a large, clever, volatile family can save the matriarch, Junon, (Deneuve) by donating bone marrow and in addition a whole family history to unravel in the luxurious 2 and a half hours running time. But it has been written as a comedy, sort of, so the pathos is taken away immediately. There is reality in the love hate feelings in a family going back to events long, long ago and there are true moments such as the drunken, black sheep brother (Almeric, superb as ever) upsetting everyone as soon as he enters the house. Yes, the familiar family strife tableaux ring true but it is still dull, dull, dull. Which is a shame because it could have been a great drama. One of the problems is that the Deneuve character is cold and unsympathetic. She is complex also but we don't care. There is subtlety in some of the perfomances, the father Abel is particularly convincing as the amiable, loving father and there are lots of emotional scenes and events but I was willing it to end unfortunately.

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Rated 2 stars
Not so good

A Customer from Edinburgh, 11th October, 2009

I expected an interesting film considering the cast and the story, but it lacked sparkle, dialogues were rather boring at times, and the actress who plays the sister really annoyed me.

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