Winter Boy

Christophe Honoré’s film tackles grief in a subtle, intriguingly indirect manner.

Ultimately, this film celebrates living — including the part that includes taking big swings and making terrible mistakes.

Winter Boy shines when it allows its actors to quietly play out family dynamics, with Lacoste, Binoche and especially Kircher wearing the many shades of grief with effortless, endearing naturalism.

In digging up what seems to be his own personal history, Honoré doesn’t trust the audience fully to fill in those silences.

Ultimately, Winter Boy becomes too much of a broad, all-encompassing exploration of grief within a coming-of-age tale, ringing trite while it should be personal. It’s undeniably heartfelt, but the most moving moments are rooted within Lucas’ home life; in straying from this it feels uncomfortably generic.