In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

An enjoyable, if slight and somewhat predictable, comedy. One unbelievable moment: that the daughter Paula, quite obviously well into puberty, should be experiencing her first period. It provides for unintentional silliness when the full-breasted actress menstruates unexpectedly and is humiliated. This is one weakness of this film, which occasionally sacrifices logic and consistency to propel its cute story forward.

This is a really conventional film. It wasn't painful, It's not like I didn't enjoy it. But I really can't fathom the rave reviewsAs I was watching, it always felt as if it would take an interesting turn, or something. There was the mother's "we thought you were a lesbian!" comment. I thought perhaps this might be genuine and perhaps the daughter was actually jealous of her best friend's regular sexual encounters. But I quickly realised it was intended to be a joke, based on the laughing of the people who thought it was funny for some reason.It felt as if the characters had potentially important interactions and then immediately forgot about them. For example, at the start there is a scene in which a GP instructs the couple not to have sex for 3 weeks at least (, presumably due to some kind of disease). Not long after that they have sex anyway. But the consequences or significance of this is never touched upon. What was the purpose of the GP scene, seeing as nothing he said affected anything in the movie? These kinds of seemingly meaningless, but perhaps mildly funny scenes are littered throughout the movie. It feels like they were spreading the seeds for interesting plot items later on but all this potential was abandoned to focus on the main plot. which is straight out of Hollywood, it'd be hard to find a more typical coming-of-age story.All this would have been perfectly passable if the characters had been more charming and interesting. But instead most seem very shallow, quite cliché. Both the love interest and younger brother rarely go beyond the teenage male stereotype as perpetuated by middle agers. Here is a list of the younger brother's interesting traits: -he loves his sister -he likes breasts -he wants to have sex with his sister's friend Here is a list of the love interest's interesting traits: -he is kinda sad or worried for some reason and quits singing even though he's good at it (this is never followed up?) -that wasn't a personality trait and the love interest is a really boring character. It doesn't help that the actor doesn't seem capable of more than one facial expression.The singing teacher is somewhat interesting. But it seems like he changes throughout the movie. At first, he's dismissing the central character's friend from the choir audition before she even sang based on the way she looked if I recall correctly. So I thought "wow, this person really is a dick". But then the central character barely seems to even care and by the end of the movie the teacher is nothing but warm and cordial. There are posters of someone all over his room but this is also never discussed. Similarly there are interesting posters all over the central character's room. What looks like a Chinese communist poster in her study area, hindu posters on the wall. But they are also never discussed and I'm still wondering how they got there. The acting is all pretty good except for the love interest, especially how little there seemed to be to work with. Same with cinematography and music.So yeah. I left feeling as if I had watched nothing. Like I can remember watching all these events happen, but they had no meaning or significance within the plot. The only plot that was followed through was so cliché I may as well have already seen it. What did I think of the movie? I don't feel like I even watched a movie...

This film is about an ordinary family – mum, dad, daughter and son, doing ordinary things, like running their dairy farm, making and selling cheese, going to school and criticising local politicians. But the critical ingredient is that all but the 16 year old daughter are deaf and cannot speak, but communicate with sign language. And of course when the daughter, who is the family's principal connection to the surrounding world is spotted by her music teacher as a potential for the elite Maitrise de Radio France choir, which would involve living in Paris, all the dilemmas of family, obligation, personal development and escaping a predictable rural life for the bright lights of Paris unfold.It is beautifully acted, stretching from rage at a deaf person's inability to communicate with others, to wonderful sensitivity and empathy. There are some very funny moments, both from the unusual situations the premise enables, but also in the pure physicality of the farm setting and the challenges of moving from childhood to adulthood. The four leads are all terrific, and the limitations of not being able to speak but having the added complexities of signing make for a unique insight into cinematic possibilities. There is quite a bit of musical performance, and while one musical scene seemed overlong, most were well handled and made great contributions to the story and understanding. To me, Louane Emera's singing voice really isn't quite at the level you might expect given its centrality to the plot, but the overall lightness of touch of the whole film makes up for this. There is one really moving scene where the audience is treated to an effect of what one of the deaf people might be experiencing. I found the music teacher convincing, although the result he got from a rural middle high school choir was amazingly good, particularly when you consider he frequently complained there were only two people in the choir who could sing! Paula Bélier being one of them of course. None of the actors was familiar to me, but Louane Emera as Paula won several promising young actor awards, which I feel were deserved. The actors in non speaking roles made the most of the expressions and sign gestures, which must have been the result of enormous lengths, depths and breadth of rehearsal. The cinematography is lovely, ably assisted by gloriously bucolic French countryside and wonderful stone farmhouses and villages.

And they achieve to do so, even while not being political correct. And sexually open minded. Not that there is any nudity in it, but as the MPAA would state it (I reckon): adult situations, language and then some ... well maybe not the last part, but you get where I'm heading with this. But all in the name of comedy and if you're not easily offended, you will actually see a heart warming story of a dysfunctional family, that's actually more normal than others.Family issues are the toughest to handle, because you deal with them every day. And it's a surefire trap for falling into clichés. But even when that seems to be the case, the movie always has a solution that works in its favor. The comedy and the acting feel fresh and natural, rather than scripted and boring.