FirstLoveMovies

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109525/

The difficult reunion between a tough young mother and her neglected daughter provide impetus this gritty, but upbeat French drama. Daisy, a typical young woman of the X-generation, seems to have no ambition in her life; she lives for the moment and the moment is often self-destructive. Abused as a child, she affects toughness and bravado to disguise her inner fears. Mona, Daisy's seven-year old daughter, is the result of the sexual abuse Daisy suffered while she was a child. Mona was raised by her father, but after he went to prison and his girlfriend rejected her, Mona must return to her mother. The reunion is not joyful and the two must lower plenty of mutual barriers if they are to bond. When Mona's lover Sami is arrested for a shooting, Daisy and Mona go on the lam. To survive they become con-artists and petty thieves. Just as things start to improve, finds out that her new boss has been having her deliver kiddie-porn.

stage.variety.com wrote:Marina Golovine (the skeptical daughter in Agnieszka Holland's "Olivier, Olivier") plays Daisy, a street-smart Generation X-er with a spiky hairdo and a prickly attitude. She still bears the emotional scars of an abusive childhood, and conducts herself with equal measures of devil-may-care bravado and self-destructive impetuousness. Only when she's forced to accept responsibility for her long-neglected daughter does she begin to find some purpose for her life. The mother-and-child reunion does not begin very promisingly. Seven-year-old Mona (talented newcomer Dyna Gauzy) has been raised by her father, who got Daisy pregnant when she was still a child herself. But when the father is sent to prison, and his girlfriend rejects Mona, Daisy must claim the child. Neither Daisy nor Mona is particularly happy about this.

An uncomfortable situation gets even worse when Sami (Lilah Dadi), Daisy's small-time-crook lover, is arrested for shooting a racist barroom brawler. Daisy and Mona take flight, relying on scams and petty larcenies for traveling money. While on the road, they slowly break through their industrial-strength emotional defenses and reach out to each other. But they're never far from danger. Things come to a head when Daisy discovers that her new employer has tricked her into delivering child-porn videos.

D'Anna does a fine job of avoiding the off-puttingly lurid while still maintaining a gritty realism. The film is rich in vivid and persuasive details, particularly as it depicts the squalor of the lower depths to which Daisy and Mona sink. But pic is neither exploitative nor sensational. The lead performers bring out the best in each other. Golovine is excellent as the wounded young woman whose dreams are too troubling to allow her much sleep. And Gauzy is every bit as compelling when it comes to balancing rude feistiness with emotional vulnerability.

kev wrote:Haven't thought about this film for awhile.. Thanks for bumping!