My good friend writer's reign likes it;as he is a true French cinema connoisseur,I decided to have a look at " a sense of wonder" .

In westerns,the subject of the widow with a ranch to run is common; generally a handsome cowboy comes to the rescue ; in melodramas ,in Sirk's or Stahl 's works,particularly ,the widow may be actually an unwed mom ,but sometimes the mother does her walk of life in business.

Well,Louise is a widow with two children ;her tree cultivation family business is not really thriving ,there's a mortgage hanging on her head,and the man from the bank is a hateful macho:"it was your husband's job".

Up comes a man ;you're going to say :" even though their first encounter does not bode well,they will be in bed after twenty minutes "

Pas Du Tout

Pierre has a very high HQ :a computer wiz, a law expert , and above all a prime numbers lover :Louise is 37,what a beautiful number though he prefers 23 ! The clouds in the sky are prime numbers in disguise . Pierre is also an autistic ,a cousin of Dustin Hoffman 's "rain man " -who was brilliant at mental arithmetic - a man whose fate is to stay marginal ,unable to integrate the society ,apart from an old bookseller ...and maybe Louise..

Pierre and Louise will meet ,but only at the end of the movie ;it's a long way to love and understanding.Although very educated -and a bit pedantic- ,the man has his own way of thinking ,his own logic,his own rules which challenge the established order :for many people ,he is an outcast ; the golden rule of society you are part of is: it's all right provided you keep within the norm .

It's a feel-good movie ,but unlike bland flicks such " Les Chaises Musicales " or " L'Echappée Belle" ,it's ,in spite of its finer feelings ,a pretty work,with a nice cinematography (nature and sky) fine score,and excellent acting by Virginie Efira ,and mainly Benjamin Lavernhe ,De La Comédie Française ,in a complex part in which he achieves the feat of moving us with a restrained ,almost robotic performance .

"Inspiré Par Une Fée Réelle " (=n inspired by a real fairy) parodies the classic last (or first) sentence: "inspired by real facts" (Inspiré De Faits Réels ) ;Fait(fact) and Fée (fairy ) are homonyms in French.

It may be a fairy tale :with his "magic wand" ,(represented by the computer ) the wizard gets the house from the clutches of the bank,and saves the day ,including the boy's problems in maths and the daughter who is beyond her mom's authority.It may be Frank Capra's spirit who inspired Eric Besnard.

Fascinating story of an asperger man accidentally meeting a woman, both made for each other. Well done and convincing.

Though it has yet to play in England - indeed it may well be one of the many excellent French films that never make it across La Manche - the title has been translated as The Sense Of Wonder and it's not that far off the mark and it's not too difficult to envision writer- director Eric Besnard saying to himself 'let's start with a feelgood movie and work upwards' in an unconscious parody of Sam Goldwyn. What in fact he does start with is a lyrical rural setting in which we find a young, comely widow, living with her two young children. Within minutes, whilst distracted, she hits a young man with her car and although he is able to get up and walk unaided she takes it upon herself to tend to him. It is soon apparent that the man, although essentially harmless, does have 'issues' and this is where the film begins to resemble Eleanor Faucher's beautiful debut movie Brodeuses in that the two protagonists, whether they know and/or acknowledge it or not, are engaged in the process of mutual healing. Whilst a notch or two below Brodeuses - for one thing it lacks Ariane Ascaride - it is, nevertheless a fine, lyrical effort virtually guaranteed to put a smile on your lips and a tear in your eye.