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'By the Grace of God' ('Grâce à Dieu') recounts the real-life news story of a cardinal of the Catholic church accused of carrying out a series of child molestation acts. As the case is sub-judice in France, filmmaker François Ozon trades in his usual flamboyance for a more understated and classic approach, doing his best to stick as close to the facts as possible.
Structuring the story as a three-part narrative—each following one of the victims and bringing about their approaches to raising the complaint as well as the unique impacts the trauma has had in their personal life—is a fairly reasonable way to go about turning this story into a work of fiction. However, the director struggles to bring about a balance of tone. We move from a devout Catholic to a reckless atheist to a broken unemployed man with the same neutrality of view, and except for the last character, we are given little glimpse into the motivations or complexities of these people.
Ozon's typical ironic detachment, which he usually deploys to create melodramatic stereotypes in his over-the-top dramas, feels out of place here. Characters crack jokes about their trauma almost offhandedly, making us wonder whether their lives are really as destroyed as they claim. We are given superficial insights into the women who fight the battle by their side, but Ozon shies from going further in depth. The film is also weighed down by uneven performances by the ensemble cast: among them Swann Arlaud as the third victim and, ironically, Bernard Verley as the predatory priest are the only ones who give us layered people we can sympathise with. 'By the Grace of God' began its life as a documentary, and one cannot help but wonder whether it would have been more impactful as one. Apart from tackling a sensitive subject, this timely film doesn't have much to offer.
Genre: Drama
Language: French
Runtime: 2h 17min
Year of release: 2018
Streaming Platform: N/A
Hot take is a series in which I offer my first impressions of films from India and around the world.
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