Entertainment

OUT OF PRISON, BUT NOT FREE FROM TORMENT

KRISTIN Scott Thomas is tremendously mov ing in “I’ve Loved You So Long” as a woman who moves in with her sister’s family after serving 15 years in prison for killing her 6-year-old son.

Scott Thomas’ reserve as an actor – which probably helped keep her from top stardom after an Oscar nomination for “The English Patient” (1996) – makes her perfect casting for this French film, the auspicious debut of director Philippe Claudel.

Her frequent, sad silences and body language speak volumes as Juliette, a former doctor who goes to live in Alsace-Lorraine with her younger sister (Elsa Zylberstein), a lit prof; sis’ wary hubby (Serge Hazanavicius); and their two adopted Vietnamese children.

It’s an awkward situation all around, as Juliette bonds with the kids, hides her past when she goes to work as a medical secretary, picks up a man in a bar to satisfy her sexual cravings, and enjoys an ultimately disastrous flirtation with her newly separated parole officer (Frederic Pierrot).

The movie begins to come to a boil when a drunken longtime acquaintance of her sister’s confronts Juliette at a party about where she’s been all these years. When she brazenly jokes she’s been in prison, a sensitive professor (Laurent Grevill) familiar with that world realizes she isn’t joking, and her reserve begins to melt.

Juliette, who has never discussed her son’s death with anyone, prefers spending her time with her brother-in-law’s book-loving father, rendered mute by a stroke.

But a chance discovery makes it impossible to hold her sister at arm’s length anymore – and you’d have to be made of stone not to weep at the confession that caps “I’ve Loved You So Long.”

I’VE LOVED YOU SO LONG

The French doctor.

Running time: 117 minutes. In French with English subtitles. Rated R (references to child murder). At the Lincoln Plaza and the Angelika.