MD - In The House

By overlapping the reality, the writing of a 16 year old outsider (Claude) and, most importantly, the wish-fulfillment of his patron an ageing unhappy literature teacher (M. Germain), In The House sets out to demonstrate the adage that those who can, do, and those that can't, teach. 

Played with the right mix of arch knowingness and humour the cast does a good job with characters who display a myriad of faults and foibles. Amongst the unfulfilled women and unaware men, a lonely boy who yearns Pinocchio-like for real family wealds his vivacious imagination to shape his own (and Germain’s) familial and burgeoning sexual desires. They are essentially the same person - the boy at the back of the class - as is demonstrated from the adult perspective in the first scene. The manipulation grows, as Germain demands more from his protégé, naive to the understanding of teenage interpretation in contrast to his own. 

Throughout the movie the trustworthiness of story and writer - and as a consequence of 'literature' itself - is held to scrutiny; but the filmmakers clearly believe literature still triumphs over 'maths' and, particularly, 'art' which is wonderfully parodied through the various exhibits in Kirsten Scott Thomas' modernist gallery and scorched distain of Klee watercolours in a suburban hallway. 

Ultimately in trying to jolt everyone into reality it ends on a couple of unrealistic codas. As the Germain character says a good story gives the reader the ending they didn't expect but was the only one that there could have been. Despite a glorious closing shot, that’s not quite the case here.

7/10