Things to Come (L’avenir)
by Rose Finlay

Mia  Hansen-Løve,  France/Germany

The emotional  struggles of middle-age come to the fore in the sensitively handled film from  director Mia Hansen-Løve. Nathalie (Isabell Huppert) is a woman coming into her  later years with everything comfortably in its place - she is a philosophy  teacher who writes academic texts, her students appreciate her input and stay  in contact after they leave her class, and she is happily married with two  adjusted adult children. When she is informed by her husband that he is leaving  her for a younger woman, Nathalie has to readjust her ideas about her future  and  herself.

There is no  doubt that this film is about grief. Nathalie is grieving both her past and her  future. No longer will she be able to go the house in Brittany, owned by her  husband, filled with so many memories of the family and which she had lovingly  landscaped. The bookcases which dominated the apartment she shared with her  husband are suddenly sparse, many of her favorite texts missing. She also sees  something of her future in her mother, an eccentric and slightly senile woman  who lives alone and still spends far too much on her wardrobe, trying to grasp  onto the fading realities of her past. The future is no longer what she  imagined, and there is a fear and sorrow there. Growth too. She begins to  expand, going on trips to visit a young former student, who is still enthralled  with the ideas of revolutionary philosophy. Slowly, but surely, she finds  herself coming to peace with her new life, and discovering that she actually  enjoys it.

The film is dominated by Nathalie’s character  and Isabell Huppert shines in the role, making a simple story compelling. Mila  Hansen-Løve does an exceptional job at dealing with the subject of middle-age  in a touching and poignant way, particularly considering the director is only  thirty-five. Perhaps the most important aspect of Things to Come is its quiet subtlety, there are no massive  screaming matches or thrown objects, life moves on, and in the end Nathalie finds  that she is at peace with herself and is happy with who she has become.