JEAN-PIERRE DARROUSSIN, GREGORY GADEBOIS IN ONE OF A KIND

Healing people, wandering without a clue

Françcois Dupeyron is on the lookout for uplift, but he tries quite different ways to get at it. None more obvious, perhaps, or more unlikely than Frédi (a superb Grégory Gadebois) a chunky, inarticulate man who lives in a trailer and rides motor bikes. Frédi has a gift for healing inherited from his mother, recently deceased. He lives with his widowed, depressed father ( sad-faced veteran actor Jean-Pierre Darroussin), has epilepsy, but, incongruously, works as a tree surgeon. He has a skimpy teenage daughter, none too happy either, who comes and goes. A drunken ride, an injured boy, and Frédi, guilt-ridden, tries to muster his healing powers. Then, people begin to beat a path to his humble door. But who can heal Frédi?

One of a Kind takes the risk of meandering, and its action is hit or miss; I wish it did not have to be punctuated by bluesy American songs. But thanks precisely to its measured pace, expressive use of widescreen lensing, and Gadebois' skill at seeming not to be acting, Dupeyron, who knows how to frame a scene, captures a lived-in feel and offers some surprises. I'm of two minds about Nina, the wealthy alcoholic Frédo fallls for and seeks to save, and in so doing saves himself. But in playing Nina to the hilt, Céline Sallette makes every minute count, as for that matter, in his offhand way, does Gadebois. If ever an actor could anchor a movie, he can. At times his simple brutish decency and quiet accesses to healing achieve a melding of the animal and the transcendent worthy of Bruno Dumont -- surprising coming from a director most known for celebrating the friendship of a mellow muslim and a cute oversexed Jewish boy.

The film is set on the French Riviera in winter, and the golden sunlight invades the wide screen with its own healing but incomprehensible force. Poverty, sorrow, and disease are still afflictions however pretty the light. "I dreamed that Heaven looked on me and I was afraid," says Frédo. His father, who goes fishing, then finds a new girlfriend, says these dreams are all conneries, nonsense. Frédo, who understands nothing and knows it, looks for a sign that never comes. He is like those Hollywood film noir heros, a French critic wrote, such as Robert Mithum or John Garfield, who "wants to live in peace but is always caught up by destiny." Gadebois and Dupeyron achieve something cinematic together; a protagonist who just simply is. Dupeyron's heroically humble protagonist may just be, in its own small way, a bit of a fresh angle on the mysteries of the universe.

One of a Kind/Mon âme par toi guérie, 123 mins., debuted Sept. 2013 at Donostia-San Sebastián, French release at that time. AlloCiné press rating 3.5. It was a nominee for the Prix Goncourt du Cinéma. Previously reviewed: With a Little Help from Myself (2008) and Monsieur Ibrahim (2003).

_________________
©Chris Knipp. Blog: http://chrisknipp.blogspot.com/.