Life Is a Long Quiet River (1988)

Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

I was quite surprised that many commenters didn't appreciate this film at all. I think you have to understand class differences in French society and the film's kind of satire in order to be able to enjoy the film. I personally loved it though I would have expected a real 'catastrophe' at the end. But I nevertheless liked the story and the characters, especially this very ridiculous, 'perfect' bourgeois family. I loved the scene where the father looks at the crying, completely desperate mother and the only thing that comes to his mind is to tell her: "Comme vous êtes belle ce soir!" (How beautiful you are this evening!)Probably Americans are not so familiar with this kind of black, but also at times subtle humor and this is why the reactions were so bad.

The subject of two children being switched at birth could have easily been the canvas for a melodramatic movie. Instead of that, this work presents a playfull comedy where the clichés of society classes are scrutinized. The laughs are in the details, some dialogs are just memorable. And if the ending might seem a little unsettled, it has the intelligence of leaving questions and conclusions to the spectator about wealth and happiness.

This could have been done WAY better. This is the story: Two babies are switched at birth, one from an upper middleclass family and one from a lower class family, because of a jealous nurse. Twelve years later the mystery is discovered and the upper class family buys their kid back. This lame plot isn't worked out at all, and some minor storylines are just forgotten near the end. By the way, what the hell was the meaning of the very last scene ???? There are some serious things wrong with this movie.Acting isn't very good either, but it isn't bad. Benoît Magimel, the kid who plays Maurice, did some nice things, and Jean-Brice Van Keer was good too. But then again, some other people didn't act at all: Daniel Gelin (the doctor), Patric Bouchitey (the priest), ...Mostly I don't say anything about the music, but this time it really beats everything. HORRIBLE! TASTELESS! OFF-KEY! UnbelievableOf course there are some good things about this movie, especially how the two families are brought into screen and how one family falls apart when someone from the other family comes to live with them. But in general, this is a huge stinker. 4/10

True, this is not the best movie ever made. It is, however, extremely funny. One cannot truly realize why this is such a ridiculous movie until they know the the french culture. It is not a study in the class differences, it is to exaggerate the extreme opposite ends of the spectrum. The rich family is so stable it is almost hokey, and the poor family is so dysfunctional that they are almost stable. All of the comments about life are only to exaggerate the situation. I particularly love the scene in the church with the musical, it just goes to show how silly things can be. I don't watch this movie over and over for the plot, I watch it because every time you see it you notice something now that is characteristically French. Personally, I think it is great.