Huievest Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

TaryBiggBall It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

Rosie Searle It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Cristal The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Terrell-4 The English title on the Region 2 release does a much better job of luring us into this stylish French thriller, part psychological study and part ensemble suspense story. Betty Fisher and Other Stories tells us about Brigitte Fisher (Betty is her nom de plume), a young woman who has written a successful novel. In New York she married briefly, had a child and has return to Paris. She had an unpleasant childhood with a mother who at times would become irrationally angry. Brigitte's marriage lasted six months. Now her son is four years old and her mother has unexpectedly arrived for medical "treatments." Days later, Brigitte's son falls from a second floor window and dies. Brigitte (Sandrine Kiberlain) is distraught and depressed. Her mother takes steps to fix that...by stealing a four-year-old child from a lower-class neighborhood and bringing the boy home for her daughter. Betty at first rejects the child but then slowly becomes attached. And we learn about the child's real mother, Carole Novacki, a surly young barmaid, shoplifter and part-time prostitute. There's Carole's live-in boy friend, Francoise, a laborer from Africa; Milo, the bartender with a short fuse where she works; Alex, the hustler, long-time friend and occasional bed-mate of Carole; there's Eduard, Brigitte's former husband who shows up and sees her now as a literary bread ticket. There is a whole cast of characters, including the police who are searching for the stolen boy. Their stories swirl around Brigitte's story, sometime overlapping, sometimes just glancing by. The stories come together at Orly Air Port in a violent confrontation which leaves these people and their stories getting what they deserve. Which means some die, some flee and some get on an airplane for Singapore. The director, Claude Miller, does two things very well. He not only involves us with all these stories, he gives them all an overlay of uneasy tension. Especially with Brigitte, her mother and the stolen boy, there is an edgy dread that quickly establishes itself. It eases up only when we realize the boy will survive, but there still is the question of what will happen to him. Miller also gives us some strong characters to get involved with, even if we don't like them too much. There's no flashy acting moments, just the steady building of information about these people, which Miller lets us discover for ourselves. The actors, in my view, all do fine jobs. Sandrine Kiberlain carries the movie and she handles her character with depth and skill. Nicole Garcia, who plays Brigitte's mother, makes us nervous whenever we see her. Just how unstable is Margot Fisher? The story, by the way, is from one of Ruth Rendell's psychological thrillers. This is a movie which keeps something of a cool distance from the many goings on. I don't think this is a fault. It helps us examine Brigitte's evolving feelings and helps us make choices about the characters. I'd be surprised if any viewer doesn't finally agree with Brigitte's choice.

gambilljen It looks like a promising movie, and it is to some extent, but I feel like it failed to show us the characters. The acting was good, but not entirely convincing at times. The movie as far as suspense and such is bad. No suspense, no action, no intensity. I didn't really understand some of the movie, and that may be why I didn't enjoy it.If you like intriguing story lines and (for the most part) a solid movie, this is for you. I won't give anything away, but the ending is a little disappointing. I rate this a 7/10.In case no one knows (but you should), this is a French movie.(My rating) R-Some sexual content/language, and brief violence

dbdumonteil When he's at his best,that is to say when his movies deal with childhood/parenthood ("la classse de neige) or the difficult passage from adolescence to adult age ("la meilleure façon de marcher" ,his towering achievement,and "l'effrontée"),Claude Miller makes really strong films.Whereas his adaptation of Patricia Highsmith ("this sweet sickness" aka "dites-lui que je l'aime")was downright disappointing ,his foray into Ruth Rendell is highly successful.First of all,this novel was tailor-made for him:it's a movie about monstrous love,self-love for the grandmother (a never better Nicole Garcia),painful love for the young mother(Kimberlain) ,absence of love for Seigner's character in a story revolving around children.Rendell's novels are very complex,involving many characters ,who brush against one another more than they meet ;sometimes,it takes a long time before we know the connection between them.But Miller succeeds brilliantly in his adaptation :he devotes each character a "chapter"(hence the title) "Betty's story" "Joseph's story" etc.In Rendell's work ,like in Highsmith's ,the frontier between the "culprits" and the "innocents" is very vague and we never know which ones will get away.Minor critic: the actor playing Alex is not very credible because he's not really the looks of a gigolo.

Ralph Michael Stein Deftly, director Claude Miller and his excellent cast turn out a fairly fast-paced set of scenes of the lives of interconnected people faced with a crescendo of escalating trouble. With the English title of "Alias Betty," not an adequate translation from the French, the neighborhoods of Paris witness tragic loss, wistful grasping for hope and ludicrous scheming for ill-gotten gain.Sandrine Fisher is "Betty," an author with a very successful (apparently first) novel about her life and marriage during a four-year sojourn in New York City. Returning to a just bought beautiful house in the outer Parisian suburbs, Betty - who makes it clear she's had it with New York's claustrophobic A-list social life - just wants peace and quiet for herself and her young son, Joseph. Immediately arrives her wacky mother, "Margot" (played very well by Nicole Garcia), in town for medical tests that she won't trust doctors to perform in Spain where she and her husband settled.Mother-daughter conflict? Sure. Ranging back to Betty's youth? Yep. Familiar? Of course. Sandrine is very believable as a daughter with a vivid and deeply rooted love/hate relationship with mom. Mom may be worried about her health and want extensive medical tests but she's the kind of gal who'll outlive all the people she drives nuts. And she IS nuts too.Hardly settled into her home, Betty gets hit with the unspeakable tragedy of an accident claiming her young son's life. If that isn't bad enough (and is anything worse than the loss of a child?), Margot thoughtfully picks up little Jose for Betty as a "replacement" for her lost boy. "Picks up?" Right, as in kidnapping. Jose is the child of a complex and wounded character, "Carole," (Mathilde Seigner), a woman battered as a child and available to as many men in a week as time will allow. Who is Jose's father is a big question mark and dominating concern for some but not for Carole who seems to write off the result of her prostitution as an inconvenience. Carole hovers between likability and repulsiveness. Mathilde Seigner invests her complex role with rapidly shifting emotions.Anything more would constitute spoilers. Miller has given a fresh coat to the frequent cinema theme of casual interactions through the interconnectedness of the characters' lives as revealed by sharply etched encounters. Sandrine Kiberlain, a thin woman, whose shoulders carry the weight of the story, delivers a remarkably effective and nuanced performance.The resolution is alternately amusing and messy but, overall, believable. A very good film.7/10.