A Common Thread

Most helpful review A Common Thread

• A Relaxing Afternoon

   

  By Mr Nightmare-on-Elm-Street from Suffolk, England , 04 Jul 2005

  [Highly rated reviewer]

  I found this film very touching. The young actress does a wonderful job of making you sympathize with the character, as well as being gorgeous!
  
  Ok so the story is small and slow paced but it might be just what you want on a quiet afternoon. It is French and so subtitled but there isn't a great deal of dialogue so reading them won?t wear you out! Instead the film?s story is played out in the faces and emotions of the actors.
  
  I liked the fact that the teenager Claire is already 5 months pregnant at the start of the film. This meant that the man who got her pregnant and the how and why of her pregnancy are not important. Instead the film chooses to focus on her own fears of dealing with the fact, her emotions, the how, if and when to tell people; her parents included, and her reactions to her changing body.
  
  I also liked the fact that this really isn't a social film about teenage pregnancy in general and the issue of abortion is not automatically assumed as the answer, nor even discussed.
  
  Instead we see Claire not just as a pregnant teenager, but also as a young artist trying to start out in the exclusive world of becoming a professional seamstress. It is this love and talent for sewing that brings her into a relationship with a lady grieving for her son. I liked the parallel of their life changing events with on one hand the unwanted loss of an only son and on the other the unwanted gain of an unborn child. Both of the characters are given someone else to focus on and so by helping each other are lifted out of their own problems and become firm friends. The 'work' produced is also gorgeous and symbolically gives the film a brightness and hope.
  
  The ending does leave you feeling slightly shortchanged. It ends as abruptly as it starts, about a month later down the road for Claire, but there is a hopeful conclusion for the viewer to take home as both characters come to an acceptance of their life-altering event.

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