Le ventre de Juliette

Though the English translation of Le ventre de Juliette remains muddled (onscreen subtitles refer to it as Juliette’s Baby, while the Cinefranco program guide says Song from Within), the film is actually a fairly simple story of a young woman named Juliette (Julie-Marie Parmentier) dealing with an unexpected pregnancy. The father (Stéphane Rideau) isn’t interested, while her mother (Carmen Maura) is far from supportive. Juliette finds an unlikely ally in an older married man (Tom Novembre), a relationship that (not surprisingly) causes concern with her friends and family. Director (and co-screenwriter) Martin Provost does a fine job of establishing Juliette and her surroundings, but unnecessarily complicates things with needless subplots and supporting characters. The most obvious example of this is Juliette’s mother, a figure that feels like she could only exist in a movie. Presumably meant to operate as comic relief, the character spends her time dwelling on her success as an actress as a kid – leading to pointless sequences in which she parades around dressed like her childhood alter ego. As a portrait of a young woman struggling to come to terms with the new direction her life is taking, Le ventre de Juliette works. But everything else serves only to pad the running time, which is a shame given how effective Parmentier is in the central role.

**1/2 out of ****