Think back to when you were seven years old. Do you remember what your hopes and dreams were for your future self?
There is a French saying that dictates you reach the age of reason when you turn seven years old. The film With Love … From the Age of Reason, now showing at the Cleveland Film Festival, takes its title from that tradition, and is sure to get you reminiscing about where you were, and what you dreamed of becoming at that young, idealistic age.
In the film, by French director Yann Samuell, businesswoman extraordinaire Margaret (Sophie Marceau) spends her days (and nights) chained to her BlackBerry, living off frozen food and selling climate-destroying power plants for a living. She eats, sleeps and breathes work, as does her coworker and lover Malcolm (Marton Csokas). All is well in Margaret’s highly structured, all-work-no-play life until the day of her 40th birthday, when she starts receiving letters she wrote, at age seven, to her future self. These letters list her many wishes and dreams (to become a princess and/or cake maker, for example), and include Polaroid photographs she took long ago, childhood trinkets, mix tapes, and even a treasure map of sorts for her to follow.
As Margaret relives her youth (which was, in many respects, a turbulent time marked by poverty and her parents’ divorce), she begins to question the type of person she has grown up to be. The letters remind her that she was once a creative, imaginative and brave young girl, and she sets out to follow a saying credited to Picasso: “Become who you are.”
The film has its cheesy, tear-jerking moments, but all in all, it’s a sweet, nostalgia-inspiring romantic fantasy that is as absorbing as it is far-fetched.
It touched a nerve in me that was made raw a couple of weeks ago, when my parents sent me an article from their local newspaper letting me know that my beloved fifth grade teacher, Mrs. Davis, had died in a car accident – just months shy of retiring from her job teaching the same grade at the same school.
Mrs. Davis was a stellar teacher on many counts, but what I remember most about her is the time capsules she created for each of her classes. At the end of our fifth grade year, we wrote down what we wanted to become when we grew up, and then place it in the time capsule. I wrote “a doctor and a singer.” Though I struggled in my math classes and was too shy to sing in front of people, Mrs. Davis was nothing less than encouraging.
By 11th grade, I had switched schools, but was delighted to receive a letter from Mrs. Davis inviting me to attend my 5th grade reunion, at which the time capsules we’d left years ago would be opened. There were many laughs (and a few tears) shared at that reunion. As I watched With Love … From the Age of Reason, I couldn’t help but think, “Mrs. Davis would have loved this film.”
Anyone who has fallen out of touch with - or recently rediscovered - their childhood self will love this film.
✭✭✭ 1/2
Reviews are scored on a four-star scale.
Catch With Love … From the Age of Reason on Saturday, April 2, at 7:00 p.m., or Sunday, April 3, at 1:55 p.m at Tower City Cinemas. Both showings are currently on standby and ticket availability may be limited.
