Mark Reviews Movies: ONE FINE MORNING

One Fine Morning, Sony Pictures Classics

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Review by Mark Dujsik | January 26, 2023

Life isn't easy for Sandra (Léa Seydoux), who's a young widow, a single mother, the daughter of a father with degenerative illness, and the lover of a married man. One Fine Morning provides so many struggles and complications in the main character's life that it's kind of surprising how low-key and uneventful writer/director Mia Hansen-Løve's movie turns out to be.

That's not necessarily a criticism, of course. Hansen-Løve's story isn't so much about what happens to Sandra as it is about how she responds to the suddenly overwhelming nature of her life. All of it happens so unexpectedly and with such spontaneity that Sandra almost seems unaffected by everything. That can't last for long, obviously, because eventually our minds do catch up with just how uncertain, frightening, and painful life can become all at once.

If the screenplay lacks a bit of focus, that's partially the point. That we're never fully invested in any particular element of Sandra's story, because there's simply so much of her life to observe at this moment in time, is just an unfortunate, albeit predictable, result of that approach to this narrative.

For the most part, we simply follow Sandra on her day-to-day routine. The underlying truth of the movie is how some significant and monumental things do eventually become little more than routine.

Take, for example, how we meet Sandra after the unexpected death of her husband. This would be a life-changing event for anyone—and especially, perhaps, for a woman in her late 30s, as Sandra is, who almost certainly anticipated the second half and beyond of her life to be spent with the man she loved, she married, and with whom she had a child. That man is barely spoken of now—not because he has been forgotten, but simply on account of the fact that life, no matter the tragedy, does continue. Sandra now has to raise her daughter Linn (Camille Leban Martins) on her own, and despite the past, that is her life now.

At least one other thing—a terrible complication now and a tragedy in the making—in Sandra's life has started to become something of a routine when we first meet her, as well. That has to do with her father Georg (Pascal Greggory), a former professor, who is suffering from a rare neurological disease that has deteriorated his vision, leaving him essentially blind, and caused dementia.

To the extent that anyone can, Sandra has become accustomed to her father's condition—checking on him at his apartment regularly, helping him with assorted things, talking with him as if nothing has changed in their lives. Even the process of finding a care facility for Georg, as it becomes clear his condition is worsening, becomes a matter of some routine.

If not for a scene of Sandra breaking down in tears when a former student of her father's asks how he is, we might start to wonder if Sandra actually believes that nothing really has changed and that matters might turn out all right with her father. Such is how we deal with these issues, if only because we must, lest every waking moment be spent in a state of terror, grief, and helplessness.

As we watch Sandra try to keep her life and her obligations and her emotions together in the face of such suffering and struggling, Hansen-Løve's movie does gradually find a central idea, as vague as it may be, and the strength of Seydoux's internalized performance becomes even more apparent. It's all about trying to hold on to some sense of control, to find some semblance of actual normalcy and maybe even happiness, and to maintain a brave face as so much in her life has collapsed and continues to collapse around her. So much of what Hansen-Løve seems to be going for here is in what Seydoux doesn't show us, and if that comes across as a contradiction, that's likely getting even close to the filmmaker's central theme of this slice-of-life approach to a life that appears as if it could fall apart at any given moment.

The not-so-ordinary elements of Sandra's life that have become, for better or worse, routine make for a fine piece of understated drama. The other major part of this story is Sandra's affair with Clément (Melvil Poupaud), a friend of hers and her late husband's, who suddenly and conveniently re-appears in her life upon his return from a lengthy scientific expedition. This subplot seems to be fulfilling some requirement for a story about a single woman, more than it fits naturally into the rest of the material. While it does briefly allow us to see Sandra in some state of contentment amidst the various troubles in her life, the constant back-and-forth and on-and-off of the relationship, since Clément is married and has a son of his own, adds just enough melodrama to make these scenes stick out even more from the quieter, more introspective material.

The movie doesn't falter entirely or only because of this section of the narrative, but its inclusion definitely detracts from the potential to explore these other, far more involving aspects of Sandra's life. One Fine Morning tries to tell a tricky story about life's difficulties, so it's strange how, ultimately, Hansen-Løve settles on something so formulaic as a sort of solution those problems.

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