Tomorrow We Move

It was that time of the year again for the Jewish Film Festival. I always try and catch a few films every year.

One of the films I chose was Chantal Akerman’s ‘Tomorrow We Move’. The scenario appealed to me. The film is about a difficult mother/daughter relationship. Charlottte’s mother Catherine, moves in to share her small studio apartment after the death of her husband. The tensions soon mount between this creative couple as they have to share the one small space; Charlotte is a stressed out writer, trying to write a new erotic novel, Catherine is a music teacher, and has brought with her her grand piano.

The deal that I cut was that if the movie had a good play around with the claustrophobic, mature mother daughter relationship then I’d be happy with my ticket. It felt like there would be plenty of room for comedy and even pathos.

Well…I’m afraid that the verdict isn’t good. With ‘Tomorrow We Move’ I felt ripped off. The title was a misnomer. Sure Charlotte and Catherine do move in the end. The thing is that the movie doesn’t really move…anywhere. It is a long time since I’ve seen a film that had so little action. It was made worse that the film went for just under two hours.

There was no real conflict, nothing substantial at stake, to keep audiences interested. No wonder that so many people in the audience walked out by half way through the film. The most exciting that the film got was the tensions that Charlotte felt trying to write her erotic novel with her mother no w hanging around. Well I guess there was a bit of interest when the ‘couple’ started showing people around their apartment but they weren’t really very interesting characters, unfortunately.

There were only very slim pickings to get from this film. They related mainly to one good central performance. I enjoyed Sylvie Testud’s performance as Charlotte. She was a fun, impish sort of character.

Summing up, it’s sad to say but this film was a bit of a yawn. It never really got out of first gear. How this film made it into a film festival program is a curious aberation.