Spitball Army

7.6
[DVD, Netflix]

There was a point not too far into this film when the tone changed completely for me. Up until that point, the film was aloof and removed, but at the moment when Catherine Deneuve and Catherine Frot walk through the door of a bistro – the plates clanking, glasses dinging, the low ambient rumble of work and chatter intermingling – the film took on a deeper dimension for me. Not coincidentally, I think, this was the beginning of the first scene in which Deneuve lets her character spill forth, creating the initial contrast between the two women (one impulsive and emotional; the other cold and controlling) that will supply the framework for the rest of the picture. Both leads act wonderfully throughout THE MIDWIFE, and there is a very understated but crucial performance by Olivier Gourmet as titular character Catherine Frot’s possible love interest.

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