The French film “In the Name of My Daughter” is based on a tricky real-life story. It’s even trickier to write about without giving away spoilers, if that’s even the right word for details that are revealed about actual events.
Let’s just say that the movie re-creates a scandal (and likely crime) that rocked the French Riviera in the late 1970s. The story is ripe for Lifetime movie treatment.
Director Andre Techine, to his credit, avoids the tacky tabloid feel of a mystery that’s been rehashed many times in the intervening decades, as this one has, in court case after court case. But while the movie begins as an authentically told human story, it ultimately becomes overwrought before the whole thing peters out during its final scenes.
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“Daughter” opens with the introduction of Agnes Le Roux (Adele Haenel), a 20-something heiress returning to France from Africa after a failed marriage, and Maurice Agnelet (Guillaume Canet), a lawyer and lackey for Agnes’s mother Renee (Catherine Deneuve). Maurice greets Agnes at the airport because Renee is too busy running a casino on the French Riviera to perform shuttle duty.
This efficient opening lays out a few intriguing threads. From the first moment, the chemistry between Agnes and Maurice is clear; in another kind of movie this could certainly pass for a meet-cute. Then there’s the fact that Agnes is obviously displeased with her mother’s workaholic tendencies. When we see Agnes and Renee together, the story deepens. They have a sweet relationship, despite Agnes’s annoyance with her mother.
“You look beautiful,” Renee tells a groggy Agnes when the two reunite. “Liar,” Agnes replies with a smile, sending her mother into a little fit of laughter.
But if Agnes is hoping for some quality time with Mom, she isn’t going to get it, given that a Mafia type is in the midst of making a play for Renee’s business. The tension between mother and daughter builds after Agnes begins an affair with Maurice, who is angry with Renee for passing him over for a promotion.
The acting is spectacular, especially from Canet, who plays a convincing snake. He occasionally comes across as unassuming and even a little bumbling, but the truth is he’s constantly strategizing, in pleasure as well as business. (He may or may not be separated from his wife, and he has at least one other girlfriend in addition to Agnes.)
Haenel, as Agnes, is an alluring figure, especially during the first part of the movie as she works through a divorce, a new love and major mommy issues. She ably conveys a perpetual sadness, even in moments of joy. But the emotional arc of the script does her no favors, ultimately reducing her to a desperate depressive with a tendency for stalking.
The movie’s pacing also feels off. The last fraction of the film jumps forward to a courtroom drama set many years later (complete with distracting makeup to age the characters). This section of the film is important enough to have inspired the English-language title. Yet these scenes feel tacked on like a postscript.
“In the Name of My Daughter” has good intentions of taking a sensationalistic riddle and turning it into a human story. But the pendulum ultimately swings too far, leaving an explosive tale behind in favor of one that fizzles out.
“In the Name of My Daughter” – 2 stars
MPAA rating: Rated R for nudity, sex and strong language
Running time: 1:56
Opens: Friday