Madly in Life – Une vie démente (2020)

Directed by: Raphaël Balboni, Ann Sirot | 87 minutes | comedy, drama | Actors: Jo Deseure, Jean Le Peltier, Lucie Debay, Gilles Remiche, Vincent Lecuyer, Joëlle Franco, Annette Gatta, Estelle Marion

In ‘Madly in Life’ (original, French, title: ‘Une vie démente’) by the directorial duo Ann Sirot and Raphaël Balboni, we see the young couple Alex (Jean Le Peltier) and Noémie (Lucie Debay) contemplating getting pregnant. turn into. However, when Alex’s hip, eccentric mother Suzanne (a wonderful role by Jo Deseure), manager of an art center, starts to behave more and more strangely, they are concerned.

After some research it turns out that Suzanne suffers from semantic dementia. Not trusting Alex and Noémie, Kevin (Gilles Remiche) moves in with Suzanne to keep a close eye on her. Things go from bad to worse: Suzanne can no longer drive a car (‘gone freedom, gone music’), she ends up in a strange house and she forgets who some people are.

Alex doubts whether they should go through with the plan of having a child. He is increasingly stressed by the changes he sees in his mother and finds it difficult to deal with this. Noémie, on the other hand, insists that at all costs they should ‘just’ keep their own lives intact as much as possible, because “it will always be a mess.”

Frustrations run so high that the couple split up for a short time. Fortunately, Alex eventually manages to deal better with his mother’s antics. By putting everything into perspective, they find consensus regarding the right approach. OK, it is what it is. We just go along with it as long as we can…

Madly in Life’ deals with a heavy theme, a parent with dementia. Just look at it, suddenly you don’t recognize your own mother anymore! How to deal with that? Alex struggles a lot with this, but he also sees that his mother has not been helped with heavy medication. A difficult dilemma, because what does work? It’s a constant battle, they go from one emotion to another and the irritation sometimes runs high.

Despite the loaded theme, Siro and Balboni know how to pack it lightly, with a joke and a nice running gag. All the actors excel with Deseure who really impresses as Suzanne. A rodeo, a turbulent roller coaster in which a couple experiences parenthood in reverse. Surprising and moving. A director duo to keep an eye on!