In her 40s Nathalie (Isabelle Huppert) has it all: a comfortable 25 year marriage to a man, Heinz, (Andre Marcon) who is her equal, 2 teenage children, a job she loves teaching philosophy to young adults, an annoying mother, Yvette (Edith Scob) who was a very successful model when younger, and she loves, wrote an ongoing much used and admired textbook, edits a highly praised scholarly book series and is a mentor to Fabian (Roman Kolinka) who has a girlfriend and, with friends, have just bought a house in the countryside with to make a literary commune.

Enjoying and comfortable in and with her life Heinz comes home a couple of years later and tells her he is in love with another woman and is leaving her. Her children are grown and have left home while her mother can no longer live alone and leaves Nathalie her 10 year old obese cat Pandora who doesn’t like her.  Adding to all that the publishers of her textbook and book series wants to go in another direction.

The movie deals with all this change in Nathalie’s life with humor, thought, realism and philosophy not being the heavy drama one would expect and that is mainly due to the star’s performance.

Isabelle Huppert is one of those rare actresses who can be doing one thing while her face shows, expresses, deeper emotions. The director and screenwriter, Mia Hansen-Love, doesn’t take the easy way out by providing Nathalie with an inappropriate lover, though Roman Kolinka would certainly seem to fill that role, instead showing a smart, strong woman can lose herself and yet continue on with her life.

Huppert is an interesting actress to watch and I am looking forward to seeing her in “Elle”, a much praised with Oscar talk performance, which can only add to her stellar resume.

Another plus in this movie are the many beautiful scenes of the countryside whether it be the mountain area where the commune is set up or near the sea where the family owns a country home. Along with this is the home where they live in the city.

The film takes place in France and, except for a few sentences spoken in English, has subtitles.

“Things to Come” is an interesting movie mainly due to the performance of Huppert, the impact of Roman Kolinka on the screen and, yes, the many talks about books and philosophies, but it just misses being a ‘must see’ movie.

“Things to Come” trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhErAqJ8HGE