Amanda

The old maxim about life being what happens while you're busy making other plans dominates Mikhaël Hers's third feature, as Vincent Lacoste finds himself having to care for his seven-year-old niece (newcomer Isaure Multrier) after her mother is killed in a terrorist atrocity in Paris. Given the appalling nature of recent outrages in the city, Hers and co-writer Maud Ameline capably convey the sense of numbing shock. But contrivance saps the credibility of the ensuing drama, as Lacoste's romance with a musician (Stacy Martin) falls apart in the aftermath, while his aunt seems ready to hand him a responsibility for which she is much more suited. Even more implausibly, Lacoste's estranged mother (Greta Scacchi) opts to remain in London rather than respond to the family crisis, solely to set up a corny finale at Wimbledon. Lacoste feels like an Eric Rohmer character who has wandered into a soap opera, but he and Multrier establish a touching rapport that holds things together.