Olivier, Olivier

Directed by: Agnieszka Holland

RS: Not Rated Average User Rating: 3.5of 4 Stars

1992 Drama

A boy disappears from home and returns six years later. Or is he a fake? This prodigal son sounds like an echo of Sommersby's prodigal husband. But moments into this haunting and mesmerizing thriller, you know you're in the hands of a brilliant original. Her name is Agnieszka Holland, the Polish writer-director whose great film Europa, Europa told the story of a Jewish boy who survives among Nazis by pretending to be one. Olivier joins Europa in finding humor in the face of unspeakable evil.

Nine-year-old Olivier Duval (Emmanuel Morozof) enjoys life in the French countryside. But his older sister, Nadine (Faye Gatteau), resents the kisses that mother Elisabeth (the superb Brigitte Roüan) plants on Olivier, while she gets a peck. And Serge (François Cluzet), their veterinarian father, bristles when Olivier repeatedly climbs into his parents' bed.

The dysfunctions in the family are kept hidden until the day Olivier bicycles off like Little Red Riding Hood to deliver lunch to his grandmother. A neighbor, Marcel (Frédéric Quiring), sees him ride by. But Olivier never rides back. Later, Serge takes a job in North Africa, though his wife and daughter refuse to join him. Elisabeth retreats into trances of grief while Nadine develops telekinetic powers -- she can set fires and smash objects through mere concentration.

Six years later, the police believe they have found Olivier. The boy (Grégoire Colin), now fifteen, is a prostitute with a sneering manner that offends everyone except for Elisabeth, who embraces her lost child. Serge returns from Africa to share in the family reunion. Only the grown Nadine (Marina Golovine) is skeptical, though not enough to kick this flirtatious kid brother out of her bed.

Holland based the film on a true story she read in a French newspaper in 1984. Still, Olivier possesses a mythical quality that transcends docudrama. Though the scenes of incest, rape and murder are disturbing, Holland's exploration of the destructive and healing powers of family touches a raw nerve.

PETER TRAVERS
RS 650