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France · 2013
1h 40m
Director Emmanuelle Bercot
Starring Catherine Deneuve, Claude Gensac, Dominique Rocheteau, Gérard Garouste
Genre Comedy, Drama
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Now in her early sixties, former beauty queen Bettie finds herself jilted by her lover and left alone to deal with her financial difficulties. What begins as a quick drive to clear her head turns into a full-fledged road trip. Along the way, there are chance meetings, renewed ties with her estranged daughter, and possibly, at the end of the road, love.
While her film abjectly fails in reconciling its modest ambitions with its ungainly story, Bercot was certainly right to trust that Deneuve’s compulsive watchability—and her palpable connection to the part—would be enough to anchor this otherwise weightless coming-of-old-age saga.
RogerEbert.com by Brian Tallerico
The living legend certainly deserves little blame for this misfire but she can't handle the heavy lifting required by a script and director that feel as unfocused as the film's protagonist for at least an hour.
New York Daily News by Elizabeth Weitzman
Predictable as the adventure may be, the company — and the countryside — make it worthwhile.
New York Post by Farran Smith Nehme
There are so many echoes of “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg” that it starts to feel like a barely disguised sequel. But those reminders, and the rather trite journey-of-self plot, are just decoration. This tender film works to remind us of how much we still love Deneuve, and succeeds in scene after scene.
Family members fight and reconcile over delicious-looking regional cuisine, new romantic possibilities present themselves, and Deneuve swans through all the heartstring-plucking silliness like the ethereal superstar she is. There are worse things in life.
Village Voice by Michael Atkinson
Its realism is patient and inclusive.
The A.V. Club by Mike D'Angelo
This isn’t the kind of movie that’s in a hurry to get anywhere in particular. Still, there’s no need for the journey to be quite so blah.
Disappointingly tedious, On My Way is a contrived vehicle for Gallic icon Catherine Deneuve. At 70, she’s still the embodiment of placid ripeness we know and love, but the movie has little substance.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service by Roger Moore
Deneuve suggests the self-absorption of the beautiful, coping with the petty insults of age, making Bettie a bundle of nerves wrestling with a complicated past and an increasingly frazzled present. See it for her performance, and a lovely slice of French scenery.
The New York Times by Stephen Holden
Because Ms. Deneuve, 70, is in almost every scene, On My Way feels like Ms. Bercot’s loving character study of a star who has always stood above the fray, a symbol of resilient Gallic femininity.
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