Cannes 2018 Award winners

For the first hour or so, I was thinking that I had just found my new favorite director. Then, the film just had to run 30 too long and end in an unfortunate manner that spoiled the new relationship. The story takes place at a halfway house between death and eternity. Each newly deceased person gets to choose one memory from his/her life and that is all they can take with them into eternity. After discussing the choice with a councilor, the memories are filmed in a movie studio. This is a wonderful concept although fraught with the peril of falling into gooey sentimentality. Thankfully, this is avoided almost completely and the film is delightful for most of its run time. There are some SPOILERS coming next – fair warning. When the man who wanted to leave behind some evidence of his existence finally chooses a memory, it is an autumnal moment with his wife of about 50 years who had predeceased him. After he has gone on, we learn that his late wife’s eternal memory had been that of the man she had loved before her husband. This was clearly meant to be sweet and romantic, but it left a very sour taste in my mouth. The poor guy who was fated to think about his loving wife for all time had been played for a sap. His wife was sure not going to be thinking about him. This pretty much sank the whole movie for me.