This movie was a bit disappointing, Ozon being one of my favorite directors especially for Swimming Pool among others.

It starts as a French family drama, turns into a Hollywood like movie you would normally expect from Spielberg in the supermarket scene and then back to a French movie. I even thought maybe Ozon is considering some Hollywood adventure! The movie goes into the life of a single mother who is stuck in life and could only turn it around with a miracle. And that is exactly what happens, after she starts dating another worker in the factory she gets pregnant and Ricky, a super cute baby, is born.

Ozon takes on French workers' stagnant, even hopeless life on a warmer tone than you normally would expect in a such story. Their life is no fun and only miracles and disasters can force them to rethink their situations.

Editing of the movie was the weak link, as it seemed like the director wanted to get the film flowing by editing and not naturally by the storyline. That approach did not really pay off. It gave me the impression that the movie was shot hastily.

Yet, I was lucky to see the film during its Istanbul Film festival screening and attended the Q&A session after the film. I was glad to see him as a director who likes experimenting with film, even after so many achievements so far. He is a natural movie maker that gets emotions across the screen easily. So I will be on the outlook for his next movie as usual.

Having watched all his other movies, it was only time before I stumbled into this film. I have 3 kids and reluctantly lately watch movies with kids. The movie starts in a typical French Ozon way. No stress, no fuss, no problems. We are captured. We get into it. Slowly we are dragged into his realm. And then... everything goes wrong. There is no way a mother wouldn't run to the hospital if she discovered her son to have bruises on his back. NO WAY. It's not realistic or convincing to say that "I don't want doctor involved"! Please! And then she blames the lover for the bruises and sends him away. But when the wings appear!!! She does not call him to apologise.... WEAK And when they finally face the media, showing off the flying chicken, sorry, Kid, the rope is so thin, it is unreasonable to imagine this happening in real life (because this is the problem with the movie, it's trying to convince us this is actually happening in real life!!!) with such lack of security, and of course he flies off into nowhere! Terrible. The characters are not developed. With the exception of the daughter of the main character, no one is into the performance (ok, maybe the chicken child is having fun). I went to bed thinking it could be a 5 for trying to introduce something new and for the beginning of the movie. But really, it's a ONE for trying to convince us with absolute rubbish. The first scene is possibly the only intriguing part of the whole movie that slowly disintegrates with no solution, answer, meaning, appeal.... oh, what a mess!

As I read the other comments, I am surprised that I had a completely different feel about and interpretation of this film. As I see it, the entire part of the movie in which winged Ricky is portrayed only happens in the mind of the mother. A frustrated and desperate re-invention of how her life could be.

If you will bear with me, I will try to explain this and offer some distinct scenes and pointers in the movie that corroborate this interpretation.

In the first scene the mother is seen speaking with a social welfare counselor. She states that her partner has left her for a week and that she is desperate and willing to give up her child to foster-care. In the remainder of the film, when she is raising Ricky, she was at it as a single mum, for at least a couple of months and doing so happily. Why would she throw that all out after one week of being alone and after losing a previous child. Which she handled with grace.

Secondly, at the start of the second scene, it is clear that the rest of the movie is a flashback of the first scene. This is made clear by the text on the screen that says "A few months earlier" when the second scene starts. However the time-lines of the remainder of the movie cover much more. It starts at the conception of Ricky, the birth of Ricky (+9 months),Ricky growing, flying, and eventually walking (+ 12 months),the mother pregnant again and giving birth to another kid (+9 months). That spans at least two and a half years.

If however it is only Ricky that is born, and the mother that has a nervous and financial breakdown, while imagining how life could be if some fantastical thing would have happened, then the time-line make much more sense.

The fantasy of a flying baby and consequently the staying together of the family is her way of escaping the harsh reality. This also explain her lack of surprise and her readily accepting her loss.

A winged infant that flies away and still survives and is nourished in the wild, is symbolic for the outside world, and her desire, out of desperation to give up her child to foster-care and seeing it prosper.

The feel and the rhythm of the film are very much in tune with this interpretation.

But then again, I could be totally wrong. ;)