Entertainment

‘Sister’ a thrilling Swiss miss

Swiss director Ursula Meier’s drama dawdles at first, following its 12-year-old protagonist Simon (Kacey Mottet Klein) through his every move as he robs the wealthy visitors at a ski resort. The boy’s affectless demeanor is carried through to everyone, from those who buy his loot to the feckless sister (Léa Seydoux) he lives with, and it gets wearisome.

Then his sister, Louise, abandons him on Christmas to go off with a (possibly paying) boyfriend. The stricken look Simon gives her as she shoves off makes the movie instantly more interesting.

There isn’t much plot, despite a mid-movie revelation about why Simon and Louise live alone. The camera follows the lonely little boy as he scrounges for a living and any scrap of human contact. The film, Switzerland’s submission for the Foreign Language Oscar, is shot by cinematographer Agnès Godard in an antiseptic, realist style to belie the essentially sentimental action.

But Meier’s tight focus on her primary characters pays off: Seydoux brings a strong array of emotions to a highly unsympathetic part. And Klein, whether plugging his ears with cigarette filters or suddenly embracing a woman he barely knows, is heartbreaking.