Summer Hours

• Director: Olivier Assayas
• Writer: Olivier Assayas
• Cast: Juliette Binoche, Charles Berling, Jeremie Renier
• Theatrical Release Date: May 15, 2009
• Distributor: IFC Films
• Criticwire: A-
• On The Web Film WebsiteIMDB Entry

Synopsis: The divergent paths of three forty-something siblings collide when their mother, heiress to her uncle's exceptional 19th century art collection, dies suddenly. Left to come to terms with themselves and their differences, Adrienne (Juliette Binoche), a successful New York designer, Frederic (Charles Berling), an economist and university professor in Paris, and Jeremie (Jeremie Renier), a dynamic businessman in China, confront the end of childhood, their shared memories, background and unique vision of the future.

Round-up: "In spite of its modest scale, tactful manner and potentially dowdy subject matter, is packed nearly to bursting with rich meaning and deep implication," A.O. Scott wrote in his overwhelming rave of Oliv... ier Assayas' "Summer Hours" in The New York Times. Scott is certainly not in the minority in his opinion of the film, which is certainly one of the best reviewed films of the year thus far. indieWIRE's own Chris Wisniewski calls "Hours" "elegant and elegiac," and a "beautiful, altogether magnificent movie ends on a note of perfect grace." While Entertainment Weekly's Lisa Schwarzbaum called the film a "tender, sun-kissed, Chekhovian drama, [that] brims with life and loveliness even as it meditates on the loss of childhood." "Hats off to Olivier Assayas’s plain yet hauntingly beautiful 'Summer Hours,'" New York's David Edelstien wrote, "a true—albeit nonsecular—meditation on art and eternal life." The only review slightly resembling negativity comes care of The New York Post: "Even for a French drama, "Summer Hours" is so slow as to be practically still." Smith, though, is very much in the minority.