It's a feel good story that allows a friendship to be build between two unlikely people - an elderly woman called Madeleine and a taxi driver half her age named Charles. Through conversation and flashbacks the movie lets you learn the life history of Madeleine and through their conversations you're also getting glimpses of the life Charles.
All in all, the story is decently good. The only minor drawback point I have with the plot is the last bit where she leaves all her money to Charles when she dies, which feels cliche and unrealistic. Come on- they have build less than a day rapport! Even if Madeleine likes Charles as a person, it is completely unrealistic that she leaves everything to him instead of, say, a domestic abuse organization or another cause that has impacted her life more greatly than him. She wouldn't even have known if he'd ever come back or if her lawyer ever tracked him down!
The very last scene seems to imply that Madeleine commited suicide through electrocution with a dangling cord? I'm not sure if that was what the filmmaker was going for, it's left in the middle because the ending credits come up before we get confirmation. If it's a suicide, then that seems fitting for a character like her, as she had expressed throughout the movie that she didn't want to be pushed into an old folks home and she had made one (failed) suicide attempt before in her life after her only son died.
Lastly, the background music is nice to hear, but I'm a bit disappointed that they didn't use any songs in French language. I get it that the filmmaker would use a song in English language for those scenes with the GI-lover Matt, but all the other scenes? Seems like a missed opportunity to showcase French music along with the Parisian scenery, but I suppose that's part of the unfortunate trend of creeping Americanization happening across the entire European continent.
All in all, the story is decently good. The only minor drawback point I have with the plot is the last bit where she leaves all her money to Charles when she dies, which feels cliche and unrealistic. Come on- they have build less than a day rapport! Even if Madeleine likes Charles as a person, it is completely unrealistic that she leaves everything to him instead of, say, a domestic abuse organization or another cause that has impacted her life more greatly than him. She wouldn't even have known if he'd ever come back or if her lawyer ever tracked him down!
The very last scene seems to imply that Madeleine commited suicide through electrocution with a dangling cord? I'm not sure if that was what the filmmaker was going for, it's left in the middle because the ending credits come up before we get confirmation. If it's a suicide, then that seems fitting for a character like her, as she had expressed throughout the movie that she didn't want to be pushed into an old folks home and she had made one (failed) suicide attempt before in her life after her only son died.
Lastly, the background music is nice to hear, but I'm a bit disappointed that they didn't use any songs in French language. I get it that the filmmaker would use a song in English language for those scenes with the GI-lover Matt, but all the other scenes? Seems like a missed opportunity to showcase French music along with the Parisian scenery, but I suppose that's part of the unfortunate trend of creeping Americanization happening across the entire European continent.