Alias Betty
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Alias Betty -- Intriguing French tale in which an unstable woman (Nicole Garcia) kidnaps an abused little boy and presents him to her distraught daughter (Sandrine Kiberlain) whose own young son has died in an accident. Based on a Ruth Rendell novel, director Claude Miller's character study explores numerous colorful but flawed characters who inhabit a morally ambiguous universe. Subtitles. Sexual references, fleeting nudity and a few instances of rough language. A-IV - - adults, with reservations. (Not rated by the Motion Pictures Association of America.) 2002
Full Review
When a woman loses tragically loses her child her unstable mother simply presents her with a substitute little boy in the intriguing French tale, "Alias Betty" (Wellspring).
The psychological character study is based on British novelist Ruth Rendell's "The Tree of Hands" but writer-director Claude Miller transfers the story to a Parisian suburb. Neurotic and self-centered Margot (Nicole Garcia) is visiting her semi-estranged daughter Betty (Sandrine Kiberlain) and young grandson Joseph. In a violent episode on a train years earlier, Margot had attacked Betty, leaving physical and psychological scars. Now she apologizes to Betty for being such a poor mother, but also blames it airily on her emotional instability.
When little Joseph dies in an accident, Betty nearly loses her mind with grief. Meanwhile, the film visits slutty barmaid Carole (Mathilde Seigner), the neglectful mother of illegitimate little Jose (Alexis Chatrian). A conscienceless thief, she's currently involved with African Francois (Luck Mervil), but meets up with a previous lover (Eduoard Baer), whom she encourages in a multimillion-dollar theft.
One day Margot comes home to Betty with young Jose, claiming they must baby-sit the boy while his parents are on vacation. Betty is outraged when her mother puts him in her son's bedroom and in his clothes. Soon after Betty realizes the child has been kidnapped but when she sees his bruises, and how the child clings to her, she is torn about whether to keep him.
The story is dense with other characters and incidents, including Betty scurrilous husband (Stephane Freiss), her unexpected suitor (Roschdy Zem), Carole's volatile boss (Michael Abiteboul) and a cop (Yves Vehhoeven) determined to solve the kidnapping. It's an intriguing blend of characters -- a few straight arrows, more who are hardened types capable of anything to further their own interests, and finally Margot who steals a child out of love and Betty who must decide what course of action to take in what has become for her a morally ambiguous universe.
Consistently interesting, the movie eventually suffers from some illogical plotting as the story comes to a surprisingly violent end for some of the players. Yet Miller also manages to insert a thread of humor throughout in the character of Carole's former lover, a hapless gigolo turned foolish forger.
As mother and daughter Garcia and Kiberlain give outstanding performances and Chatrain as the stolen child will tug at the heartstrings.
Subtitles.
Due to sexual references, fleeting nudity and a few instances of rough language, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops classification is A-IV - - adults, with reservations. Not rated by the Motion Picture Association of America.
Movies have been evaluated by the U.S. Conference of Catholic
Bishop's Office for Film and Broadcasting according to artistic
merit and moral suitability. The reviews include the USCCB rating,
the Motion Picture Association of America rating, and a brief
synopsis of the movie.
The classifications are as follows:
- A-I -- general patronage;
- A-II -- adults and adolescents;
- A-III -- adults;
- A-IV**
- L -- limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. L replaces the previous classification, A-IV.
- O -- morally offensive.
** Discontinued classification. All archived movies that were originally in the A-IV category are now classified as L.