It took a while to get used to French star Charlotte Gain sbourg as an Australian wife and mother in “The Tree,” but she’s such a wonderful actress that she won me over.
You might remember her shocking, sexual performance in Lars von Trier’s “Antichrist,” in which her character, grieving for the loss of a child, cut her private parts. Her work as Dawn in “Tree,” Julie Bertuccelli’s weeper, couldn’t be more different.
Adapted from the novel “Our Father Who Art in the Tree,” the film shows how Dawn and her four young children deal with the unexpected death, from a heart attack, of their husband and father.
The youngest, 8-year-old Simone (wonderful newcomer Morgana Davies) becomes convinced that the giant fig tree that towers over their modest house embodies the spirit of her dad.
When the tree’s enormous roots infringe upon the house, it’s scheduled to be cut down. The workmen arrive, but they can’t remove the tree when Simone climbs to the top branches and refuses to come down.
Dawn, meanwhile, has taken up with a handsome plumber (Marton Csokas), a move that further displeases Simone.
Be warned: “The Tree” is slow-moving, but if given a chance, it will (pardon the pun) grow on you.