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A mother grieving over the loss of her son in a car accident finds herself becoming increasingly involved in the life of his best friend, who survived the crash with barely a scratch.

After on opening sequence in which both boys are shown dressed in drag, goofing around in her son’s room, director Gaël Morel’s Après Lui (After Him) brings us into the world of a woman who has her life shattered as her 20 yr old son is killed in a car accident that his best friend Franck (Thomas Dumercez) walks away from with only a few scratches.  Camille (Catherine Deneuve) is wrecked by Mathieu’s (Adrien Jolivet) death, Franck is guilt-riddled because he survived.  The exact details of the accident aren’t ever really covered, and since it happens on a lonely stretch of straight road where they suddenly veer into a tree, one is left to puzzle over what was going on in the car, but that’s not all that important to the actual story.

Camille visits the site of the accident after she buries her son, only to find Franck alone there, having avoided the funeral.  She takes him to her home, where the wake is being held, only to find a chilly reception.  The family, particularly Mathieu’s sister Laure (Élodie Bouchez) is appalled to see Franck there, and even Camille’s ex-husband François (Guy Marchand) seems unsympathetic to his plight.  Rather than grieve with her family and friends, Camille leaves with Franck, taking him to his friend’s graveside, since he missed the service earlier.

Camille spends time going through her son’s stuff, hoping to find something about him to connect with, she even goes to his school to visit his tutor and find out what his projected grades would’ve been for Mathieu, and while there she casually inquires about Franck’s grades and finds out that he’s stopped coming to classes.  When she looks further into this she finds him working construction with his father’s company, who assures her that his son will be able to make up his school time at a later date.  Taking an interest in the boy’s future, she gives him a job at her bookshop, and later quarrels slightly with friends about her interest in the boy.

Their relationship is harmless at first, but Camille begins to shadow Franck, watching him in class, following him when he ducks out early to go and be alone.  She takes him driving in the neighborhood of the accident, only to have him become freaked out that she appears to be trying to recreate the events of that night by asking him to drive, then drive faster and faster as they approach the tree that was hit.  Camille’s behavior continues to get stranger as a girl that Franck and Mathieu met on a holiday abroad turns up, and rather than explain what has happened she behaves as if Mathieu’s merely out of the house, and accepts a CD the girl leaves as a present.  Once the girl is gone, Camille listens to the melancholy music in her son’s room, still looking for some kind of connection or insight into Mathieu’s life.

The situation with Franck gets increasingly uncomfortable, as she turns up outside his building, prompting his parents into action as her involvement in his life, which was at first a kindly gesture, has become more than a little unnerving.

Après Lui hits DVD courtesy of IFC Films on a bare bones disc, the only bonus materials here are a few trailers.

The film was an interesting watch, in that the ambiguity of the accident events, combined with Camille’s lack of connection to those you expect her to grieve with muddies the reasoning for her sudden obsession with Franck’s well being.  I was expecting her to turn to him for some sort of physical comfort, but things never really take that turn, their relationship is something much more sad and doomed to failure.  She can’t raise someone else’s son, nor can she let go enough to deal with her own grief; it’s a very hopeless situation.

The performances are solid (even if some of the characters motivations may be a little puzzling) and the film looks good, but it may not be for all tastes.  If you aren’t a fan of open ended cinema, you may want to give this a pass, but otherwise this is well worth a look.

3