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Scripted and directed by Mia Hansen-Løve, One Fine Morning could be considered a minor work in her catalog of films, but it is far from being small. Although the tale is intimate, it is a mirror to the experiences of many. Not all of us have to deal with a new and fraught romance, caring for a child, caring for a parent, keeping a job and re-defining ourselves all at once, but there are enough of those common happenings to make Hansen-Løve’s film one that will be deeply felt and true to life.

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.

Thanks to Mia Hansen-Løve’s honest, sensitive writing, this female-driven film brilliantly avoids stereotypical pitfalls that feel manufactured and predictable. Through a myriad of events delivered with meticulous observation, Sandra shows the stresses struggling to be a good mom, locating a care facility for her father who has a neurodegenerative disease, and embracing the passion she feels for a married friend who responds in kind. Meantime, Sandra’s holding down a good job, offering her philosophy professor father’s books to deserving students, and somehow accommodating the joy and sorrow, grief and guilt that goes with all this.

Mia Hansen-Løve is one of the best directors working today for a body of films that reveal the small truths of ordinary lives. She’s not afraid to trust her story or allow her actors to be understated in exploring what it means to be a mother, a daughter, or lover. Like her recent, extraordinary films Things to Come and Bergman Island,”her latest One Fine Day is another semi-autobiographical journey that unfolds in a natural, deceptively simple way as Hansen-Løve tackles themes of loss and rebirth.