I saw this film in California when it was playing for its premiere at Cinequest and I was deeply moved by it. The decision to put at the center of a movie a woman who defines herself as a mother and nothing else is very provocative and timely. Veronica, the main character, is like the oak in the fable of the oak and the reed. With the opacity of someone who knows that she is in the right, if not by modern society's standards, then by her own, she doesn't bend under social pressure. She faces Adele, who is a French high-end executive with a brilliant career, a luxury loft, and a child at a distant boarding school. Adele is the tempest raging against Veronica's choice and shaking up everything and everybody in the fascinating airtight French expatriate milieu in which the film takes place. Avoiding the trap of a too frontal opposition, the narrative quickly enlists a third force: Amanda. Unlike Veronica and Adele, Amanda is neither strong nor talented, but she has a bewitching beauty and knows how to use it.
I found that the performances were fantastic across the board, with Irina Abraham as a no-nonsense mother loosing her balance under peer pressure and Pascal Yen- Pfister acting in a naturalistic style as the husband caught in the storm. A great work by the cast. The film is set in Tribeca and Noho and it does flirt with upper-class stereotypes, but in the nuanced writing and the work of the director, it goes far deeper and beautifully displays the toll taken on human lives when marriage and social assumptions clash. According to Her is a rare find, I recommend watching it.
