On our last day at the Cannes Film Festival we managed to squeeze into the press screening (held, for some reason, in the Palais’ tiniest theater) for the closing film, “The Tree” by Julie Bertuccelli. Bertuccelli made an impression on the Croisette in 2004 with her debut film, “Since Otar Left,” which took home the Grand Prize at the International Critic’s Week as well as a French César Award for Best First Feature. And with a closing slot, Cannes is clearly ready to welcome her back; it’s just too bad the film isn’t up to the task.
The film stars Charlotte Gainsbourg, who seems to be falling into a rut of playing psychologically damaged women (who inexplicably aren’t able to run a comb through their hair once in a while). When the film opens, Dawn’s (Gainsbourg) perfect life in the Australian countryside with her family is shattered when her husband Tim dies after suffering a heart attack. Unable to move on, and seemingly without a need for money, she staggers around the house for two months, sleeping all day with the shades drawn while neglecting her duties in taking care of the children. Luckily, these are “movie children” who have a remarkable ability to act older and wiser than their years (and the adults around them), led by the annoyingly precocious Simone (Morgana Davies). Outside the family home is a gigantic tree with roots spreading all across the property and even into the neighbor’s yard. Simone gets it into her head that her father inhabits the tree, and so the whole family, including her mother, plays along and speaks to the deceased patriarch through the tree.
In the press booklet we received it ends with the line, “But Dawn refuses to let the tree take control of her family…” but that’s pretty much exactly what she does. Dr. Phil would have a field day with Dawn, who in short, is afraid to step on Simone’s feelings and indulges her every whim. Bertuccelli tries desperately (and fails) to get us to sympathize with both of them. There is something not quite right about the increasing attachment to the tree, even as in the later reels of the film the sinuous roots threaten to destory the family home, with Dawn refusing to cut it down against all logical advice. In a particularly bizarre scene, a dead branch of the tree crashes through Dawn’s bedroom, destroying the wall and likely to kill her if she had been sleeping. Instead of clearing things up, Dawn curls up with the branch in her bed and goes to sleep.
Our inability to get a handle on these characters is symptomatic of Bertuccelli’s wildy uneven tone to the film. Vacillating between serious drama, comedy and romance, Bertuccelli doesn’t know what story she wants to tell and simply tries to do too much. All at once about Simone dealing with the loss of her father, Dawn’s new relationship with a man (played by Martin Coskas), the wacky hijinks of Simone’s siblings, and a nosy neighbor (not to mention an extraneous storyline about the eldest son applying to university), “The Tree” wanders in many different, undeveloped directions, before settling on a resolution that reveals a family in need of some serious counseling.
“The Tree” tries to convince us that the journey taken by Dawn and her family ultimately brings them closer together, but how healthy can it be for a family to unite over a memory they refuse to let go of? For Bertuccelli, who pumps some kind of twinkly Australian Coldplay-clone crap over the closing scene, it doesn’t seem to matter; she arranges her pawns on the chess board of the story and hopes that some nice cinematography, cute kids and a soaring soundtrack will gloss over the film’s serious thematic deficiencies. It doesn’t work and neither does “The Tree.” [C]
