OLIVIER OLIVIER Movie Review

Agnieszka Holland's wrenching film is based on a 1984 French newspaper story that evoked themes explored in The Return of Martin Guerre. An adored 9-year-old boy disappears from his home in a small French town and his family comes completely unstrung. The mother (Brigitte Rouan) obsesses on Olivier's disappearance and lapses into trances; the father (François Cluzet) escapes to North Africa; and the boy's sister (Marina Golovine) copes by developing telekinetic powers (which the film portrays as quite real). Six years later a detective brings an amnesiac teenager (Gregoire Colin), found hustling on the streets of Paris, to the boy's family. At that point, everyone involved must balance their natural curiosity and need for facts with their near-desperate desire to believe what they want to believe. This is an extraordinary, very disturbing, highly intelligent piece of filmmaking, but viewers should also know that it's an experience not easily shaken.

NEXT STOP … Europa, Europe, The Return of Martin Guerre, Sommersby

1992 (R) 110m/C FR Francois Cluzet, Brigitte Rouan, Gregoire Colin, Marina Golovine, Jean-Francois Stevenin, Emmanuel Morozof, Faye Gatteau, Frederic Quiring; D: Agnieszka Holland; W: Agnieszka Holland. Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards ‘93: Best Score. VHS.LV COL