Plus tard, tu comprendas

While undoubtedly a substantial improvement over filmmaker Amos Gitai’s 2005 effort, the nigh unwatchable Free Zone, Plus tard, tu comprendas ultimately suffers from a cold, almost clinical sensibility that effectively leaves the viewer at arm’s length for much of the proceedings. The exceedingly spare storyline, which follows a middle-aged man (Hippolyte Girardot’s Victor) as he attempts to unravel his family’s secrets, specifically his mother’s (Jeanne Moreau’s Rivka) actions during the Second World War, has been peppered with a number of seemingly insignificant sequences, as Gitai’s penchant for going off on head-scratching tangents is certainly in full force here. And though Gitai does eventually offer up a few intriguing interludes, including one in which a fast-talking appraiser calculates the worth of an apartment’s worth of knickknacks, the almost uniformly underdeveloped characters make it awfully difficult for one to work up any enthusiasm for their respective foibles. This is despite performances that are probably better than the film deserves, with Moreau’s subtle yet powerful turn periodically infusing the proceedings with some much-needed depth.

** out of ****