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France, Canada · 2001
1h 43m
Director Claude Miller
Starring Sandrine Kiberlain, Nicole Garcia, Mathilde Seigner, Luck Mervil
Genre Drama, Thriller, Crime
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Grieving after the death of her young son Joseph, novelist Betty Fisher enters a dark depression. Hoping to bring her out of it, her mother Margot arranges to kidnap another child, Jose, to replace the son Betty lost. Although she knows it's wrong, Betty accepts Jose as her new son. Meanwhile, Jose's mother Carole is looking for her son with the help of her boyfriend Francois and some of his criminal cohorts.
We hate to say it, but we can't find anywhere to view this film.
Washington Post by Ann Hornaday
The good news might be that Huppert wasn't available for Alias Betty, but the bad news is that it didn't stop France from exporting yet one more cold, pretentious, thoroughly dislikable study in sociopathy.
Christian Science Monitor by David Sterritt
It's one of the season's most original and energetic movies.
Washington Post by Desson Thomson
Makes for interesting, rather than emotionally compelling viewing.
Dallas Observer by Gregory Weinkauf
What's wonderful about director Claude Miller's adaptation of Ruth Rendell's novel "The Tree of Hands" is its grand capacity for compassion and complexity.
Chicago Reader by Jonathan Rosenbaum
As long as Miller simply crosscuts between the machinations of the three mothers, the sociological and psychological parallels are intriguing, but when they're forced to share the same story line, the contrivances and coincidences begin to seem fussily elaborate.
A lot goes on, and it doesn't always make sense. But the cast embodies Rendell's ability to incorporate shrewd observations on human behavior into the framework of a crime story, and Miller has a great eye for the places on the Paris outskirts where the lives of haves and have-nots intersect.
Los Angeles Times by Kevin Thomas
A confidently adroit thriller that captures a comprehensive sense of life in an edgy, multicultural and economically diverse Paris. The large cast couldn't be better, but the film belongs to Kiberlain.
Infusing Rendell's intrigue with warmth and humor, Miller makes the film's sometimes mechanical and giddy narrative into something grander -- a meditation on maternity as a form of inspired madness.
Chicago Tribune by Michael Wilmington
What really makes Alias Betty stand out, even from good recent French ensemble films like "Eight Women" and "Venus Beauty Institute," is that ingenious, Rendell-derived story. To kidnap an old phrase, it's a corker.
New York Magazine (Vulture) by Peter Rainer
Complicated thriller that gets more interesting as its complications pile up.
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A coming-of-age story about the strength of family and the generational pursuit of the American Dream.