Increasingly ostracized, the family begins to strain under the weight of Ludo's aberrance, and his parents struggle against blaming or rejecting him. Ludo devises two havens for himself: his fantasy life and his escape to his permissive, free-spirited grandmother.
Berliner depicts Ludo's magical world of possibility--populated by Barbie and Ken-like alter egos--in hypervivid primary colors and spongelike, cartoonish formations. Ludo's escapist fantasy proves far more compelling, visually, than the rest of the movie.
Ma Vie en Rose focuses on a misunderstood child whose yearnings seem recognizable; but the film, through its failure to develop, analyze or explain Ludo, fails to generate any sympathy. The film does a more subtle job of tracing the surrounding characters' reactions, though even there its facile resolution proves inadequate. Ma Vie en Rose means to endorse this idiosyncratic child and the open-ended fantasy world of children, but it doesn't address the broader implications of the child's delusion.
Ma Vie en Rose
Directed by Alain Berliner; with Georgas Du Fresne.
Rated