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Review: Custody (Jusqu'à la garde) (2017)
This was a short movie, but it did a good job eliciting specific emotions that really helped me understand the protagonists.
I'd recommend this movie as a short but solid drama. But maybe not for people who are uncomfortable with seeing abusive marital and familial relationships.
Spoilers.
Story
The story was very simple and straightforward. A man tried to get visitation rights for his son. Over the course of the movie, we came to see what Antoine's true nature was like, until he violently broke into the home of his (ex) wife, Miriam, and kids.
There were barely any distractions, except perhaps the relationship between the 18 year old daughter, Josephine, and her boyfriend Samuel. We saw that they were passionately in love, and at one point, I think that Josephine even took a pregnancy test. However, nothing seemed to come out of it. Miriam was fine with the relationship as long as Josephine stopped skipping her classes. This was the only part of the movie that seemed a bit unfulfilling. In addition, Josephine had almost nothing to do with the custody dispute because she was almost 18 years old. In a way, I thought that maybe her character was a bit unnecessary from a plot standpoint, but I didn't mind having her there because her actions did not distort the logic of the story.
Writing
The movie began with the custody hearing between Miriam and Antoine, told completely by the judges and lawyers. We heard of the horrors that Miriam, Josephine, and Julien had gone through, but since this was supposed to be a fair trial, Antoine was able to put in a word too. Unfortunately lots of evidence was provided via testimony, including testimony of Antoine's violence against the family, but also of Antoine's supposed good behaviour.
When Antoine first started seeing Julien, we saw that he tried to bond with him, but Julien was not receptive. Julien wasn't a terrible child, as he tried to be civil, but he couldn't show love.
Through a series of interactions, we began to see Antoine's facade cracking, and the true man underneath showed more and more. Antoine would get angry at the smallest things.
Around the time that Antoine forced Julien to show him where they lived, I became legitimately scared. It was at this point that I realized that the justice system had failed in keeping the family safe from Antoine.
In general, I really liked how this movie unfolded. It was very focused on the relationships between Antoine, Miriam, and Julien. The only side focus was Josephine and Samuel but I think that can be excused.
Production
Cinematography
I thought the cinematography looked pretty good. Everything was well lit except for the final scenes when Miriam and Julien were hiding in the apartment in the dark.
Acting
I think the acting was great as well. Denis Menochet (who played Antoine) had to be on good boy behaviour in front of the judge and then in front of his son, but we saw over time how he just couldn't keep his true self down. I thought Thomas Gioria (who played Julien) did a pretty good job too. He felt very natural, and it was good that the acting didn't make him exaggerate his character either.
Music
There was no music throughout the movie. I thought this was good because we were supposed to see the truth behind custody disputes. Adding music would've cheapened the emotions that the movie was trying to elicit. As the movie progressed, I was feeling more and more dread, and adding sad music over that would've cheapened the raw feelings.
Characters
Antoine Besson
As I mentioned, Antoine tried to be on his best behaviour in front of the judge. When he first picked up Julien, he also tried to play the part of a loving father.
The first signs of Antoine being intimidating was when he asked Julien why Miriam didn't pick up her phone, and why she hadn't asked about switching weeks so that Julien could attend Josephine's party. Julien had ran into the house and told his family that Antoine had said no, even though he hadn't said that at the time. At that point, I felt that maybe I was wrong about Antoine and that maybe Julien was being difficult.
The next time he picked up Julien, Antoine said he'd let him go to the party if he could speak to his mother to sort out the details. This definitely felt manipulative. Since intimidation didn't work last time, he would try to play the nice guy this time. Since being nice didn't work, he went back to being mean.
At his parents' house, Antoine got upset when Julien lied about visiting Josephine's friend in the projects. Antoine's parents insisted it wasn't a huge deal and that he didn't need to interrogate Julien. Even Antoine's own parents saw that he had a problem but obviously they could only do much to convince him at that age.
Afterwards, Antoine intimidated Julien into telling him where he lived. After entering the house, Antoine insisted that he'd changed, but neither Miriam nor Julien believed him.
Antoine and Miriam had their first one-on-one conversation outside Josephine's party. Antoine was extremely controlling going so far as to questioning why "Miriam's sister's friend" (actually Miriam's boyfriend) was at Josephine's party. Soon after, Antoine went on his rampage, going to the family's house and shooting down their door to "talk to them."
Antoine was a character that we were not supposed to understand. He was just the way that he was, but the justice system was supposed to protect those who were vulnerable to those monsters.
Miriam Besson
During the initial trial, Miriam was portrayed by Antoine and his lawyer to be a woman who wanted to mooch off Antoine's money, and was lying to her kids about Antoine's true character.
During the first part of the movie, I did also feel that Miriam was dodging Antoine a lot and was curious about why she couldn't just face him.
Perhaps it was because she bore the brunt of Antoine's violence, that led her kids to be so protective of her. Although she was the adult of the family, she was Antoine's wife and it would make sense that she was the shield for the kids in the face of his violence and aggression.
I would assume that at one point, Miriam was also in love with Antoine, and the fact that someone she loved turned into her biggest terror has to have been an extremely scary thought to process.
I think that Miriam tried her best to protect her kids by getting full custody. After Antoine was granted visitation rights, she wanted to have limited contact. She hated that she had to send Julien out to meet with Antoine, but Julien tried to do what he could to protect her as well (without her knowing). The entire ordeal was obviously very traumatizing for Miriam, but this time, there was clear evidence of Antoine's violence against their family, and hopefully they'd be rid of him in the long run.
Julien Besson
Julien hated his father from the very beginning of the movie. He'd insisted on writing a statement to the judge to show how much he detested his father. During the initial trial, however, seeds were sown for the audience to believe that Julien was beign guided by Miriam on what to write.
When Antoine tried to call Julien, we started to see that Julien was taking active steps to protect his mom without her knowing. That was when I realized that we were probably right to side with the family.
He was intimidated by Antoine into showing him where the family lived. Of course, Miriam wasn't going to get angry at him because he was just a kid.
We can all agree that Julien was a kid in an unfortunate situation. He was literally legally forced to see his violent father who was putting on a fake face that he knew was the opposite of what he really was. And as a minor and a small boy, he could only do so much to physically protect his mother.
Josephine Besson
Josephine was almost 18 years old, so she was not as relevant in the custody hearing. As mentioned, most of her story had to do with her relationship with Samuel, and finishing her classes.
She took a pregnancy test, but I don't think we ever saw what the results were. She and Samuel also hosted a big party that many family and friends attended, and they went their separate way afterwards, which was why Josephine was not in the house when Antoine attacked.
Themes
Justice System
The biggest message I got from the movie was the inability of the justice system to protect those who were truly vulnerable.
We saw in the initial trial that the judge and lawyers were all very professional, but it also failed to portray the situation for how it really was. This was of course not totally on them, because they were only carrying out the law as it existed in its current form.
Miriam, Josephine, and Julien all testified to Antoine's abusive behaviour. Josephine's medical record was released years after the actual incident, which the defending lawyer questioned. In addition, the rest of the evidence was testimony, as Miriam had not reported or recorded Antoine's threats. This made sense because obviously Miriam would have been shaken by the events.
However, if testimony was to be accepted as factual, then the defendant could also submit testimonial evidence from coworkers to support the lie that he was a decent man. Well, his coworkers said he was a great worker, and Miriam had testified that he was a bad husband, but the logic that the defending lawyer used was that that did not translate to being a bad father.
As we see here, either the court accepted testimony (including testimony that Antoine was supposedly a good person) or it rejected testimony (including testimony that Miriam and the children were abused). This is how custody disputes get broken down into he said-she said cases, because it is hard to come up with factual evidence in physical form, especially when emotional abuse is mostly caused with words.
I really don't think there is a quick fix to this flaw in the justice system. Unfortunately, it is hard to judge such cases without having observed the relationship for long periods of time. But I think this movie did good to draw our attention to the fact that this was how such cases slipped through the cracks.
Overall
Overall, I enjoyed this movie. I liked that it had a very focused story. The rest of the production was very tight. And of course, I was happy that it ended with Antoine being arrested.
I'd recommend this movie as a short but solid drama. But maybe not for people who are uncomfortable with seeing abusive marital and familial relationships.
Spoilers.
Story
The story was very simple and straightforward. A man tried to get visitation rights for his son. Over the course of the movie, we came to see what Antoine's true nature was like, until he violently broke into the home of his (ex) wife, Miriam, and kids.
There were barely any distractions, except perhaps the relationship between the 18 year old daughter, Josephine, and her boyfriend Samuel. We saw that they were passionately in love, and at one point, I think that Josephine even took a pregnancy test. However, nothing seemed to come out of it. Miriam was fine with the relationship as long as Josephine stopped skipping her classes. This was the only part of the movie that seemed a bit unfulfilling. In addition, Josephine had almost nothing to do with the custody dispute because she was almost 18 years old. In a way, I thought that maybe her character was a bit unnecessary from a plot standpoint, but I didn't mind having her there because her actions did not distort the logic of the story.
Writing
The movie began with the custody hearing between Miriam and Antoine, told completely by the judges and lawyers. We heard of the horrors that Miriam, Josephine, and Julien had gone through, but since this was supposed to be a fair trial, Antoine was able to put in a word too. Unfortunately lots of evidence was provided via testimony, including testimony of Antoine's violence against the family, but also of Antoine's supposed good behaviour.
When Antoine first started seeing Julien, we saw that he tried to bond with him, but Julien was not receptive. Julien wasn't a terrible child, as he tried to be civil, but he couldn't show love.
Through a series of interactions, we began to see Antoine's facade cracking, and the true man underneath showed more and more. Antoine would get angry at the smallest things.
Around the time that Antoine forced Julien to show him where they lived, I became legitimately scared. It was at this point that I realized that the justice system had failed in keeping the family safe from Antoine.
In general, I really liked how this movie unfolded. It was very focused on the relationships between Antoine, Miriam, and Julien. The only side focus was Josephine and Samuel but I think that can be excused.
Production
Cinematography
I thought the cinematography looked pretty good. Everything was well lit except for the final scenes when Miriam and Julien were hiding in the apartment in the dark.
Acting
I think the acting was great as well. Denis Menochet (who played Antoine) had to be on good boy behaviour in front of the judge and then in front of his son, but we saw over time how he just couldn't keep his true self down. I thought Thomas Gioria (who played Julien) did a pretty good job too. He felt very natural, and it was good that the acting didn't make him exaggerate his character either.
Music
There was no music throughout the movie. I thought this was good because we were supposed to see the truth behind custody disputes. Adding music would've cheapened the emotions that the movie was trying to elicit. As the movie progressed, I was feeling more and more dread, and adding sad music over that would've cheapened the raw feelings.
Characters
Antoine Besson
As I mentioned, Antoine tried to be on his best behaviour in front of the judge. When he first picked up Julien, he also tried to play the part of a loving father.
The first signs of Antoine being intimidating was when he asked Julien why Miriam didn't pick up her phone, and why she hadn't asked about switching weeks so that Julien could attend Josephine's party. Julien had ran into the house and told his family that Antoine had said no, even though he hadn't said that at the time. At that point, I felt that maybe I was wrong about Antoine and that maybe Julien was being difficult.
The next time he picked up Julien, Antoine said he'd let him go to the party if he could speak to his mother to sort out the details. This definitely felt manipulative. Since intimidation didn't work last time, he would try to play the nice guy this time. Since being nice didn't work, he went back to being mean.
At his parents' house, Antoine got upset when Julien lied about visiting Josephine's friend in the projects. Antoine's parents insisted it wasn't a huge deal and that he didn't need to interrogate Julien. Even Antoine's own parents saw that he had a problem but obviously they could only do much to convince him at that age.
Afterwards, Antoine intimidated Julien into telling him where he lived. After entering the house, Antoine insisted that he'd changed, but neither Miriam nor Julien believed him.
Antoine and Miriam had their first one-on-one conversation outside Josephine's party. Antoine was extremely controlling going so far as to questioning why "Miriam's sister's friend" (actually Miriam's boyfriend) was at Josephine's party. Soon after, Antoine went on his rampage, going to the family's house and shooting down their door to "talk to them."
Antoine was a character that we were not supposed to understand. He was just the way that he was, but the justice system was supposed to protect those who were vulnerable to those monsters.
Miriam Besson
During the initial trial, Miriam was portrayed by Antoine and his lawyer to be a woman who wanted to mooch off Antoine's money, and was lying to her kids about Antoine's true character.
During the first part of the movie, I did also feel that Miriam was dodging Antoine a lot and was curious about why she couldn't just face him.
Perhaps it was because she bore the brunt of Antoine's violence, that led her kids to be so protective of her. Although she was the adult of the family, she was Antoine's wife and it would make sense that she was the shield for the kids in the face of his violence and aggression.
I would assume that at one point, Miriam was also in love with Antoine, and the fact that someone she loved turned into her biggest terror has to have been an extremely scary thought to process.
I think that Miriam tried her best to protect her kids by getting full custody. After Antoine was granted visitation rights, she wanted to have limited contact. She hated that she had to send Julien out to meet with Antoine, but Julien tried to do what he could to protect her as well (without her knowing). The entire ordeal was obviously very traumatizing for Miriam, but this time, there was clear evidence of Antoine's violence against their family, and hopefully they'd be rid of him in the long run.
Julien Besson
Julien hated his father from the very beginning of the movie. He'd insisted on writing a statement to the judge to show how much he detested his father. During the initial trial, however, seeds were sown for the audience to believe that Julien was beign guided by Miriam on what to write.
When Antoine tried to call Julien, we started to see that Julien was taking active steps to protect his mom without her knowing. That was when I realized that we were probably right to side with the family.
He was intimidated by Antoine into showing him where the family lived. Of course, Miriam wasn't going to get angry at him because he was just a kid.
We can all agree that Julien was a kid in an unfortunate situation. He was literally legally forced to see his violent father who was putting on a fake face that he knew was the opposite of what he really was. And as a minor and a small boy, he could only do so much to physically protect his mother.
Josephine Besson
Josephine was almost 18 years old, so she was not as relevant in the custody hearing. As mentioned, most of her story had to do with her relationship with Samuel, and finishing her classes.
She took a pregnancy test, but I don't think we ever saw what the results were. She and Samuel also hosted a big party that many family and friends attended, and they went their separate way afterwards, which was why Josephine was not in the house when Antoine attacked.
Themes
Justice System
The biggest message I got from the movie was the inability of the justice system to protect those who were truly vulnerable.
We saw in the initial trial that the judge and lawyers were all very professional, but it also failed to portray the situation for how it really was. This was of course not totally on them, because they were only carrying out the law as it existed in its current form.
Miriam, Josephine, and Julien all testified to Antoine's abusive behaviour. Josephine's medical record was released years after the actual incident, which the defending lawyer questioned. In addition, the rest of the evidence was testimony, as Miriam had not reported or recorded Antoine's threats. This made sense because obviously Miriam would have been shaken by the events.
However, if testimony was to be accepted as factual, then the defendant could also submit testimonial evidence from coworkers to support the lie that he was a decent man. Well, his coworkers said he was a great worker, and Miriam had testified that he was a bad husband, but the logic that the defending lawyer used was that that did not translate to being a bad father.
As we see here, either the court accepted testimony (including testimony that Antoine was supposedly a good person) or it rejected testimony (including testimony that Miriam and the children were abused). This is how custody disputes get broken down into he said-she said cases, because it is hard to come up with factual evidence in physical form, especially when emotional abuse is mostly caused with words.
I really don't think there is a quick fix to this flaw in the justice system. Unfortunately, it is hard to judge such cases without having observed the relationship for long periods of time. But I think this movie did good to draw our attention to the fact that this was how such cases slipped through the cracks.
Overall
Overall, I enjoyed this movie. I liked that it had a very focused story. The rest of the production was very tight. And of course, I was happy that it ended with Antoine being arrested.