{"id":2476,"date":"2010-05-23T17:03:26","date_gmt":"2010-05-23T17:03:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?p=2476"},"modified":"2015-03-31T08:46:25","modified_gmt":"2015-03-31T08:46:25","slug":"the-tree-sentimental-family-film-for-serious-tree-huggers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?p=2476","title":{"rendered":"CANNES FILM REVIEW: Julie Bertucelli’s ‘The Tree’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Morgana Davies shines as a girl who misses her father in Julie Bertucelli’s ‘The Tree’<\/p><\/div>\n

By Ray Bennett<\/p>\n

French-born filmmaker\u00a0 Julie Bertucelli\u2019s \u201cThe Tree\u201d takes tree hugging to extremes. It will appeal to those who like to believe that upon death human beings take other forms, in this case a towering woody perennial, and bore those who do not.<\/p>\n

Screened on Closing Night at the 2010 Festival de Cannes, the French and Australian production is based on Julie Pascoe\u2019s popular Australian novel \u201cOur Father Who Art In the Tree\u201d. It opens in the UK on Aug. 5 from Artificial Eye.<\/p>\n

Those who cringe at the title should stay away from the film but given the many who enjoy touchy-feely themes, box office potential is high.<\/p>\n

Certainly, it\u2019s well worth seeing the performance of young Morgana Davies as Simone, a child who becomes convinced that her late father speaks and listens to her through the comforting branches of the tree next to her house.<\/p>\n

Davies gives the kid a great deal of spunk and character. Gifted with poise and considerable acting range, the young performer makes Simone attractive, sympathetic and vulnerable while remaining fiercely independent and prickly.<\/p>\n

Her siblings also benefit from strong performances and writer-director Bertucelli deserves great credit for making them appear so natural and credible.<\/p>\n

Charlotte Gainsbourg plays Dawn, their mother, who also comes to believe she can visit with her late husband Peter amongst the leaves of a tree that is handsome but causes a great deal of disruption with its roots spreading out for water.<\/p>\n

The family\u2019s home is in danger and also that of a fussy neighbor who petitions for the tree to be torn down. A year after Peter\u2019s death, Dawn gets a job and falls for her handy-man boss George (Marton Csokas). Things come to a head when George is enlisted to chop down the tree and the land is threatened by a ferocious cyclone.<\/p>\n

Nigel Bluck\u2019s cinematography has sweep and style, and Bertucelli wisely focuses on Simone as the center of the film. That\u2019s a good thing as Gainsbourg makes the woman appear more drippy than necessary. It\u2019s Davies who comes closest to melting the hearts of those immune to the cloying tale.<\/p>\n

UK distributor: Artificial Eye;\u00a0Sales: Memento Films International;\u00a0Production companies: Les Films du Poisson, Taylor Media;\u00a0Cast: Charlotte Gainsbourg, Marton Csokas, Morgana Davies, Aden Young;\u00a0Director and screenwriter: Julie Bertucelli; Director of photography: Nigel Bluck;\u00a0Production designer: Steven Jones-Evans;\u00a0Music: Gregoire Hetzel;\u00a0Costume designer: Joanna Mae Park;\u00a0Editor: Francois Gedigier;\u00a0UK rating 12A, 100 minutes<\/p>\n

This review\u00a0appeared in The Hollywood Reporter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ray Bennett French-born filmmaker\u00a0 Julie Bertucelli\u2019s \u201cThe Tree\u201d takes tree hugging to extremes. It will appeal to those who like to believe that upon death human beings take other forms, in this case a towering woody perennial, and bore … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[580,5,14],"tags":[437,4170,1363,1364],"class_list":["post-2476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-festival-de-cannes","category-film","category-reviews","tag-charlotte-gainsbourg","tag-festival-de-cannes","tag-julie-bertucelli","tag-morgana-davies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2476"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2476\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6676,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2476\/revisions\/6676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}