In the West, we are just beginning to realize what indigenous peoples have proclaimed all along: the veil between this world and the afterlife is very thin, and those who have died may occasionally manifest themselves in some way to those still alive on Earth. According to many surveys, nearly 50 percent of all people claim to experience contact with deceased loved ones.
In this engrossing French film written and directed by Guillaume Nicloux a divorced couple who haven't seen each other for years are summoned via separate letters from their adult son who committed suicide, to California's Death Valley where he says he will meet them. Gerard (Gerard Depardieu) is very skeptical about the whole trip but shows up anyway. Isabelle (Isabelle Huppert) is more open to the spiritual adventure which unfolds.
They rent a car and start visiting the places in the gigantic national park that their son has specified they wait for him to appear. Gerard sweats profusely and groans about the hellish heat. They reminisce about their failed marriage and the challenges that their son presented to each of them. Why have these two middle-agers taken the time to have this re-encounter with each other? Part of it seems to be the guilt they feel for their inability to give their son what he needed. Another is their quest for closure.
Nicloux has done a good job showing how two people from the entertainment world struggle with the death of their son and the mysteries surrounding his promise to reach out to them from beyond the grave. Best of all, the screenplay encourages us to believe that the young man cared deeply for his mother and father. Leaving the theatre, we felt that strange and wonderful things can happen in the twilight zone by the dead as they journey from this world to the next.
Screened through the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema Festival, Lincoln Center, New York, March 2016.