With the Oscar hullabaloo all over with, it’s worth noting that Kristen Scott Thomas was considered a contender, and something of an also ran this year for a film that isn’t half bad. It’s a performance film, and she and Elsa Zylberstein are excellent in 2008’s I’ve Loved You For So Long, a French film that likely came to some prominence because of Thomas’s great performance. The film itself is something of a vehicle with a structure that cheats itself a little, but it’s hard to argue that Thomas doesn’t manage to give it her all.

She stars as Juliette Fontaine, who has just been released from prison after fifteen years. This though is revealed slowly, after she is re-introduced to her sister Lea (Zylberstein) and her family. They are wary of her, Lea has two adopted daughters and her husband Luc (Serge Hazanavicius) is uncomfortable with Juliette being around their daughters. Eventually it’s revealed why she was put away, and it keeps her from getting a job. She killed her son.

More details emerge, that he husband left her, that her family shunned her, but Juliette, if not upbeat at all, maintains a front as she smokes often and tries to make a go at life in the outside world. But it’s hard, and though she has a one night stand, she finds Lea’s friends at least inviting, and begins to become social again.

As written and directed by Phillipe Claudel, the film is similar to Sam Fuller’s The Naked Kiss, in that it’s a love letter to strong resilant women who can leave their pasts behind them to be new people, and that society might wish them to be put in the box, but that it’s possible to change, to grow, and to live responsibly. Alas, the film pulls its punches when it comes to the conclusion and gives an answer to a nagging question that by the time it is finally settled, the why’s are no longer an issue. The film was more interesting, at least to me, when it allowed the audience to either feel for Juliette or not, and Thomas’s performance lets you soak in her discomfort and failures whilst still holding it together, if only barely. Perhaps the resolution was unavoidable, but by that point the answers don’t matter, only the person. And with a central performance as good as the one here, and complimented brilliantly by the nervous but good Zylberstein, you’ve got enough of a movie to not need a spoon to be fed with. It’s an artist’s choice, and it may make the film more palatable for some. But it made me briefly less in love with the material.

Sony Pictures Classic presents the film in widescreen (1.78:1) and in Dolby Digital 5.1 TrueHD. With a film like this upgrading to 1080 may seem unnecessary, but I loved the additional nuance that a transfer like this gives, where every subtle inflection of Thomas’s face can register with greater clarity, and therefore impact. The film in French with optional English subtitles, but lame-os can watch the film in English with Thomas doing her own dubbing. Extras are limited to seven deleted scenes with optional director commentary (5 min.), the theatrical trailer, and bonus trailers.