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The Fox and the Child (2008)

Director: Luc Jacquet

Time Out rating

Average user rating

3 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out London

Luc Jacquet’s ‘The Fox and the Child’, his semi-autobiographical follow-up to ‘March of the Penguins’, is structured along the lines of a quaint bedtime tale. It sports little dialogue (a good thing given the awkward dubbing into English), and the story is narrated, in child-friendly fashion, by Kate Winslet. French actress Bertille Noël-Bruneau plays the nature-loving ten year old of the title who, over the course of nearly a year, wins the confidence of a local wild fox. As their ‘friendship’ grows, so does the girl’s instinct to domesticate the animal, which leads, unexpectedly, to a rather distressing coda.

Shot in eastern France’s lush Jura region, near the Swiss border, Jacquet’s golden-hued cautionary tale is beautiful to look at. It’s also accurate in the way the time frame of friendship unfolds, and is spot on in illustrating our tendency to anthropomorphise cute animals. Unfortunately, for all its welcome accuracies, it becomes so bogged down in padding and repetition that only the most patient of youngsters will make it through fidget-free.

Author: Derek Adams

Time Out London Issue 1981 August 7 - 13, 2008

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User reviews of this film

jen said...

Posted on Jan 24 2010 02:21 Watched this film with my 3 kids, ages 12, 9 and 6 and everyone loved it. It unfolds in a natural way and the kids were very aware when the girl started overstepping her boundaries. The difficult bit had my 6 year old in tears but it is resolved, and with an important lesson about love and friendship. We would recommend it

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karena said...

Posted on Jan 10 2009 01:30 My 9 year old daughter watched it on DVD with 5 friends at a sleepover party. They all got bored watching and did not stay to the end. The U certificate gives parents of young children a false security regarding some of nature's harsh scenes.

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Meg said...

Posted on Aug 12 2008 21:52 I took my 3 year old daughter to see this film, and even though it has a U certificate it is pretty frightening in places, with loud frightening music to go wih it! My daughter was in tears at one point but insisted in staying until the end and when it finished wanted to see it again! If I'd have known it was as graphic as it was, I would not have taken her to see it.

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