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Jo Gilbert
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Based on a source story, this film has little originality, following one woman who finds out that her grandson has been radicalized by Islamic extremists. The plot is very simple, with a plot twist that is not particularly interesting, but is very relatable. In "Farewell to Night", Catherine Deneuve plays Muriel, a grandmother happy to see her grandson Alex after years, but increasingly concerned when she realizes that her grandson and his girlfriend Lila has joined the Islamic State. What she does not know is not going to go to join ISIS in Syria. Her nephew Alex (Kacey Mottet Klein, but to go to Syria. Her nephew Alex (Kacey Mottet Klein, being 17. Muriel is soon visited by her college-aged grandson, Alex , who is clearly headed for a job in Canada.
Alex and his girlfriend Lila -- she helps out with Muriels affairs, as well as working in the local old-age home -- espouse the causes of Islamic fundamentalism, and are planning to travel to Syria to be mujahideen. It becomes apparent soon after Alex arrives at Muriels horse pasture that he has different plans from those he told Muriel. Her favorite nephew attributes it to his Muslim conversion eight months prior, a development Muriel is stunned to discover when she spots him praying in the garden. Putting two and two together, she takes a number of steps--some radical, bordering on preposterous, others more considered--to keep him from leaving.
The radicalization of her favorite nephew is already completed by the time "Goodbye Night" begins, so the pathos in his ideological conversion is not present. Her beloved grandson takes the guarded intensity she showed in Techine is 17 to near-feral extremes here, a performance that reveals just the slightest glimmers of an unsure child under the stiff facade, particularly when she is writing his grandfathers suicide note. It is funny how, although the key relationship in the screenplay from Andre Techines and Lea Mizius is between Muriel and her radicalized grandson Alex , the scene where Deneuve is at his best, and Farewell to the Night, is his encounter with a generous stranger. Fouads tale, and her willingness to help a desperate Muriel, even at the expense of reopening a painful chapter from her own past, finds shades of color missing elsewhere in the drama, picking up on the recurring theme in Andre Techines films about French-Arab cultural cross-pollination.
Andre Techines Berlin comeback after the excellent 2016 Be 17 -- he is got the Golden Years movie to fill the slot between -- is one of his slimmest offerings, though it features a strong performance by Catherine Deneuve and the incisive work from Kasey Mott Klein, who was also in Be 17. The film is Techines sixth with cinematographer Julien Hirsch , with whom he is developing a visual language of controlled foreground camera movements, which gracefully bifurcates and circles around the space. Starring the gorgeous Catherine Deneuve, the film is about Muriel, who raises horses in France. Muriel, who raises horses in France, and five days of spring, when her nephew Alex comes to visit Muriel before moving to Canada. It is the younger generations that are obfuscated, particularly Muriels orphaned nephew Alex and his fiancee Lila , a Muslim girl who has grown up with him and converted him to his faith.
Conceptually, the biggest fault is with her nephew, crying out for a bit more oomph in order for it to feel real. Catherine Deneuves performance is not heavy enough to carry the picture, and a stupid scene where she locks Alex into the barn does nobody any favours. Muriels agitation when she learns his plans is evident from numerous close-ups of her face. When Muriel is alerted to the fact that her nephew has falsified his signature on several checks, she investigates his room and finds the suicide note that he has conveniently left by his computer, outlining his intentions.