Family drama
- Written by Eric Guirado and Florence Vignon
- Directed by Eric Guirado
A young man, emotionally alienated from his family, must take over the family business when his father can no longer run it. The experience allows him to discover who he really is.
No, it’s not The Godfather. The family owns a modest and perfectly legal rural grocery business. With the father hospitalized, the son must drive the truck on its appointed rounds, bringing food and sundries to the quaint and eccentric denizens of the local countryside.
And no, it’s not a British small-town comedy, either. The Grocer’s Son comes from France, and if the plot sounds comic, director/co-writer Eric Guirado chose not to play it for laughs. Amazingly, the result works reasonably well.
Acting and atmosphere hold The Grocer’s Son together, which is fortunate because the plot is 
embarrassingly predictable. The protagonist, Antoine (Nicolas Cazalé) starts out sullen and cold; of course he’s going to warm up. One little old lady hates him from the start, so you know they’ll become friends. Do you doubt that the “perfect” and better-loved older brother is harboring a sad and painful secret? No more than you can doubt Antoine’s friendship to the beautiful, spirited, and altogether wonderful Claire (Clotilde Hesme) will take a romantic turn.
Hesme, a newcomer to American audiences, steals the movie with her energetic and creative zest for life. She’s more than merely upbeat and sexy (although she’s both); she’s a kind soul with a sense of what makes others happy and a simple pleasure in bringing that happiness to them. Yet she’s also just passing through; a young woman with her nose to the academic grindstone and hoping to get into a Spanish university. For Claire, hanging out with this nice-looking young man and his family is little more than a diversion.
Come to think of it, so’s The Grocer’s Son. You get nice people (except Antoine himself, who’s a cold fish until all the kindness around him defrosts his personality) acting out against nice scenery. That’s a pleasant enough way to spend 96 minutes.
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