Even in supposedly enlightened societies it’s virtually an article of religion {that a} lady’s identification as a mom should supercede all her different identities. Not solely that: any lady not keen to sacrifice all the opposite love in her life for the love of her little one is unnatural, an aberration and the final word taboo: a foul mom. Anna Cazenave Cambet’s sweeping, shifting “Love Me Tender,” primarily based on the semi-autobiographical novel by Constance Debré, goals on the coronary heart of this pervasive ideology of hypocrisy and unreachably excessive expectations, and largely because of a rivetingly radiant Vicky Krieps, hits its mark with painful accuracy. The paths to what’s socially deemed success as a mom are few and slender and closely policed, however there are one million methods to fail. 

Krieps, lean and rangy in T-shirts and denim, performs Clémence, a divorced author who was once a lawyer, and amicably shares custody of her eight-year-old son Paul (Viggo Ferreira-Redier) together with her ex-husband Laurent (Antoine Reinartz, so memorable because the prosecuting legal professional in “Anatomy of a Fall.”) We’re launched to a contented and excited Clémence who appears within the wake of main self-revelation. On the pool at some point she swims her laps, casually hooks up with a lady in her altering cabin, then emerges to a sunny Parisia day and telephones her child. He asks her how far she swam right this moment. In a little bit ritual between them, she exhibits him the sky. 

DP Kristy Baboul’s heat, unfastened digicam swirls round her as a classical viola performs — some days are simply good days — however Clémence has not but informed Laurent (not to mention Paul) that she’s seeing girls now. So she arranges a gathering together with her ex in a well-recognized cafe and breaks the information, trusting of his response, assured in his understanding. In actual fact, it’s nearly humorous, the best way it performs out, with Laurent’s pretend ok-with-it response adopted by an inordinately lengthy pull on his drink. However later, on reflection, we’ll perceive the undercurrents in that intelligent scene, and marvel if Clémence’s lighthearted demeanor, and her pleasant however agency rebuff of the cross Laurent makes at her later, are what causes his unthinkable bitterness to brew. As a result of Clémence’s newfound sexual freedom obscurely rouses Laurent to inflict essentially the most vindictive ongoing revenge on her. First merely retaining Paul from her, lawyer Laurent then will get the courts concerned, submitting spurious allegations of the ugliest variety in a profitable bid to get her custody suspended totally. The harm it will do to Paul by no means appears to be an element. 

Right here the movie, like Clémence’s life, forks into two: One a part of her carries on her skilled, private and romantic life, the opposite takes on the near-full-time job of preventing by means of a authorized quagmire to have her maternal rights restored. Despite the fact that all concerned perceive she is innocent, the tortuous course of drags on to the extent that she is not going to see Paul for 18 months, or as she says in voiceover (sparingly however eloquently excerpted from the work of autofiction Clémence is writing) “two of her birthdays, one among his.” Even then, she is restricted to temporary periods underneath supervision by a social employee(Aurélia Petit). “Can I maintain him on my lap?” she begs, and the following embrace is a heartbreaking reduction, however removed from the top of the story. 

At over two hours, “Love Me Tender” feels a little bit too lengthy, particularly as soon as Clémence’s relationship with journalist Sarah (Monia Chokri) will get extra severe. Chokri is barely miscast and their relationship, regardless of a properly frank intercourse scene involving the practiced use of a strap-on, is much less convincing in its chemistry than, say, Clémence’s nightclub hookup with Victoire (an underused Park Ji-min from “Return to Seoul”). However time spent hanging out with Clémence and her flatmate Leo (Julien de Saint-Jean), or her father (Féofor Atkine) can not really feel wasted when Krieps’ inhabitation of the position is so full. It’s an unlimited, beneficiant efficiency, even her physique language modifications — slinky and nonchalant when circling a brand new lover, loose-limbed and girlish when enjoyable with associates, and tight and compressed in that horrible mediation room, her burners on low, her expression concentrated like she’s keen her coronary heart to sluggish its beat.

After this yr’s wonderful “We Consider You” from Belgium and 2023’s “All to Play For” starring a terrific Virginie Efira, Francophone dramas following moms embroiled in household court docket custody disputes are having fairly a second. “Love Me Tender” is a notable addition to the development, for Krieps, but additionally for its sorrowful however stirring ending: Clémence makes a transgressive, devastatingly tough choice, into which is woven the slenderest hope that, as we be taught to understand loving moms who’re additionally sophisticated girls, it could at some point not appear so very transgressive in any respect.