ONE FINE MORNING – Review by T.J. Callahan
One Fine Morning: Never accept pity.
One Fine Morning is the working title of the unfinished autobiography of Georg, a learned man who is slowly losing his mind due to a neurodegenerative disease. He happens to be the father of Sandra, a widowed mother who, One Fine Morning, realizes the life she knew or thought she’d have was also slipping away.
Sandra is a translator, the mother to an 8 year old daughter, and her ailing father’s caregiver. When her family decides Georg needs to be in a nursing home to receive constant care, Sandra must help find him a decent facility. While on this hunt, she runs into a married friend and they start an affair beginning her struggle to balance her needs with those of her family.
According to writer/director Mia Hansen-Løve, One Fine Morning is her Covid catharsis. It’s really her semi-autobiographical story of a daughter’s awareness of losing things that will never happen again. What we get is a simple, tender love story between a father and daughter as well as the emergence of a woman who has a lot of love to give. One Fine Morning is Hansen-Løve’s and Sandra’s growth and rebirth.
Lea Seydoux is Sandra and she plays the character with such realness you think you are a fly on the wall observing her daily life not watching a film. She gives us One Fine piece of acting. The entire French cast is equally as natural. My husband, Ricky, said there better be some action soon or he’d be closing his eyes. Real life struggles aren’t exciting enough for him, but it was very compelling for me.
One Fine Morning or Un beau matin is an honest film that tackles issues and problems that most viewers may find very familiar. It’s in French with subtitles and rated R for nudity. I give it a 7 out of 10.
