On My Way
Director: Emmanuelle Bercot
Cast: Catherine Deneuve, Nemo Schiffman, Camille
Rating: (M)
3 stars (out of 5)
In On My Way (Rialto), Bettie (Catherine Deneuve) goes on a road trip by accident.
Her restaurant is failing; her mother is demanding and to cap it off she learns that her long-time lover has left his wife for a younger woman who is having his baby.
Does Bettie have a good cry and eat a tub of ice cream like any normal woman?
No, she takes up smoking again. And it is this reignited bad habit that sets her on the road.
In the middle of a trying Sunday lunch service she jumps in her car intending to drive aimlessly for a while.
This leads to a craving for a cigarette and apparently in France shops do not sell cigarettes on Sundays.
She is in the middle of rural France so she keeps driving in a search for smokes.
Her quest leads her to a tavern to get some black-market cigarettes from the barman. Once she gets her smokes, Bettie actually starts to head back home but gets an urgent call from her daughter Muriel (Camille).
Could she come and pick up her grandson and take him to visit his grandfather (on his father's side) while Muriel starts a new job.
Getting to Muriel's involves yet more adventures and once she has her grandson Charly (Nemo Schiffman) in the car with her the pace picks up.
Without really intending to, Bettie finds she is enjoying herself and that perhaps losing her lover is not such a big deal after all.
Best thing: It is hard to warm to Bettie but Catherine Deneuve makes her likeable long before she really is.
Worst thing: Sometimes you feel as if On My Way is getting away with a lot of very loose plotting just by being so very French.
Do not see it with: Anyone who has just given up smoking.
