Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

Sameer Callahan It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Philippa All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

chrishend I'll start by agreeing with others here that the acting in the movie was very good, Emmanuelle in particular did a great job. The kids even did a good job although at times they were forced to use lines that kids would never say (um, 10ish year-old girl screaming about wanting to get impregnated? Okay ...) Unfortunately, the actors and the scenery were the best things about this movie.While watching the film I simply did not understand why there was a sexual encounter between the mother and the teen boy. There was no buildup, there was no real interest between the characters, it just BAM happened. It came completely out of the blue (although bless you Ms. Beart. I'd loved to have been in that kid's shoes during that scene ...) This relationship that was built up somewhat in the trailer and the advertising made no sense whatsoever. The "love" story in this movie seemed like a complete "Hollywood" style cop-out where a little bit of skin or sex has to be included in any movie about "relationships" to make the mouth-breathing public happy.After listening to some of the interviews on the DVD I was finally able to figure out where the director went horribly wrong. The author of the original book said that in his story the 2 soldiers tried to rape the mother until the teen boy comes out of the blue and saves her. After that she sleeps with him somewhat out of gratitude. That at least sounds plausible.However, the explanation of why she slept with him in the movie ... that the she became lonely after hearing about the soldier talking about going back to his family ... I completely missed in the film. When they brought up this idea in the interviews it felt like I must've been watching a completely different movie.This film introduced the soldiers as potentially dangerous characters, and throughout their scenes we were never led to cast our doubt aside. Therefore the idea of her being so moved by this soldier's story (a soldier that might be thinking of raping her) that her loneliness drives her to have sex with the teen boy (of which she seemingly had no real interest) is laughable. The audience was never led to believe much of anything that left the soldier's mouth, so why should we accept that the mother character would be so moved by it that it would drive her to very suddenly jump the bones of the teen boy? Without the soldiers attempting to rape her, as what occurred in the book, there was never any ultimate resolution between the two world-views of the main characters ... the survival of the fittest mentality of the boy (who was ready to attack the unarmed soldiers with an axe) vs. the living through society/morality viewpoint put forth by the mother. The movie just sort of ended ... If the boy had gone ahead to murder the soldiers there would've at least been some deeper question revealed about how people maybe need to make choices between life/death/killing/stealing/etc when they are forced into the middle of a situation where their lives are in danger. This conflict between world-views, that the movie was seemingly built toward, was completely abandoned and unresolved.

gradyharp STRAYED is yet another of those tender French films about survival and discovery under the duress of World War II. Based on the novel 'Les Egares' by Gilles Perrault and adapted for the screen by Gilles Taurand, STRAYED is an elegantly honest tale of a small family forced to evacuate Paris during the Nazi invasion and how that disruption in their lives ultimately enhances their view of the world.Odile (Emmanuelle Beart) is an educated mother of two children, Cathy (Clemence Meyer) and Philippe (Gregoire Leprince-Ringuet), who has been teaching school and raising the dignity of her family until the war disrupts everything. During a blitz Odile hurries Cathy and Philippe into her car and drives out of Paris to the South to escape the Nazis. Her car breaks down and is burned and in a moment of desperation a young illiterate lad, Yvan (Gaspard Ulliel) from a reformatory offers his help and assists Odile and her family in finding refuge in a deserted country estate. Odile is at first cold to Yvan, but as the children warm to him, and as Yvan captures food for their table, Odile softens, no longer looking at this illiterate young lad as someone beneath her, and begins to teach him how to write and read.Yvan keeps his past a secret, maintaining a mystery about himself that makes him all the more appealing. In time Odile succumbs to her physical attraction to Yvan and this warmly extended 'family' enjoys the beauty of the French countryside and new home...until the war seems over. Gendarmes visit the house, arrest Yvan as being an escapee from a reformatory, and because Odile and her children are illegally living in another person's home, they are moved to a refugee camp.The manner in which this story pummels to an end is tense and tender and as directed by Andre Techine, the lessons of living, loving and surviving war are fully explored.Odile is probably one of the beautiful Beart's finest roles, matched in sensitivity only by Gaspard Ulliel's finely wrought Yvan. The cinematography is breathtaking and the musical score is supportive without disrupting the flow of the film. Highly recommended on every level! Grady Harp

lefthandedchick The film was no less the almost perfect! The casting on the director's (Andrea) part was awesome!! I thought that it was an interesting and intelligent movie, and me, not being too good in French because i have only had 5 years, understood a lot of it which made it even more interesting! Anyways, Grég was an awesome actor...and his singing voice was amazing as well. Clémence did a great job even though she was so young and the older actors was good as well. I recommend this film to everyone who enjoys a nice romantic/war movie (over the age of 17, or allowed to watch R rated movies because of showy scenes, but other then that its totally painless to watch).

chanrion_d A journey of a woman with her 2 children accompanied by a young mysterious wanderer who tried to flee the war, but the tragic will somewhat jostled against this bucolic experience.An intimist French film that typically depicts the emotions and mixed and complex relations between the protagonists.Pictures are nice, actors are moving but with a dull script and so little stake, the films fails to catch you completely. Though slow, the film is never boring, it is very pleasant to watch.The film leaves you charmed and confused, you would love to like it, but it definitely lacks appeal..(6 out of 10)