Times Have Been Better (2006)

The first must-see film of the year.

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

GENERAL: The late coming out of a young man to his parents. The film is more focused on the parents than on the young concerned.POSITIVE ASPECTS: Surprising realism coming from the reaction of the supposedly liberal parents. Beauty of the relationship between the brothers. Dualism between the rationality of the father and the big brother on one side and the emotional intelligence of the mother and the little brother on the other side. Many unspoken truths are put on the screen: the difference between what we look like and what we do, the fact that one of the children is more beloved than the other, the mother who needs to feel like a woman, the father's manhood that is challenged by his son, the limit of the organized and rational men and the escape from reality. The limit of the organized and rational men is well expressed when the father confesses to his son that it is the mother the smartest, since she can live in disorder. Indeed, she managed to love his son as they are and not how she wants them to be. The example of escape from reality surprises early in the film. Indeed, one quickly realizes that it is not going very well: the son who smokes pot, the mother who takes pills and the father who drinks. From the beginning, we embark in the film; thanks to lively music for young people, the definition of a Sunday by the young and the general realism imbued with a humorous touch. Even if the boss of the mother is detestable by his remarks and manners, he still manages to seize out what happens and help the mother. Especially when he told to the mother that her boy will never end like him because of the value of love she learned to her son, the love she gave to her son and the love that is now in her son. Later, his son will reassure his mother with by saying that love does not just hold for kids. The film shows with simplicity, humor and emotion a reality that is even well- established in our society.NEGATIVE ASPECTS: Sometimes a little too caricatured, especially for the father with his silly friends.AVENUES OF REFLECTION: Do we love our children as much as we pretend? Are we open as we say? And when it happens in our backyard? Are we able to apply our principles and ideals when we are faced with a problem in our own lives?

As a made for French TV movie Times Have Been Better is better than most American made for TV. It's only a gay themed film in that a family's oldest son's coming out really turns the family upside down, and not in a light hearted comical way. The film begins breezily but the lightness gradually vanishes and it becomes more of a drama.The film feels a little dated, it seems more like a story one would see in a film from the 80s or early 90s (although the story is one that probably happens every day). The parents seem miswritten as they're supposedly easy going liberals but their sense of self and their marriage falls apart because of their son being gay. Unfortunately all the self examination gets really tedious and near the end of the film I lost all interest in how anything resolved or whether the characters were happy.

TIMES HAVE BEEN BETTER (Le Ciel sur la tête) is a polished little French 'made for television' film that holds its own on every level in the theater and on DVD. The issues it tackles are many, not just the main topic of coming out to a family. This is one of the better, more fully rounded examinations of the contemporary family in recent years. Based on a story and screenplay by Nicholas Mercier and directed by Régis Musset, this is a sophisticated comedy with some sensitive dramatic overtones presented by a fine cast and superb production values.Jérémy (Arnaud Binard) is the wholly successful business executive son of Rosine (the amazingly fine actress Charlotte de Turckheim) and Guy (Bernard Le Coq) and big brother to Robin (Olivier Guéritée). When he pays a surprise visit to his home for an impromptu brunch, his family is in fine spirits until the reason for the surprise visit is made known: Jérémy announces to his parents that he is gay and though Robin has known this fact for some time and Rosine has suspected it, the news hits the family unit by storm. Jérémy returns to Paris to his partner Marc (Pierre Deny) and while relieved that he can now live his life in the open, Jérémy frets about the trauma to his family unit. Robin gathers the courage to rebel against going to college in favor of following his dream of being involved with cinema, Guy goes into a true depression, and Rosine decides to face the new life of her son, traveling to Paris to meet her son's home and friends and fresh outlook. While in Paris Rosine discovers her own suppressed needs and with the courage Jérémy has shown, she is able to return to her home an altered person.The cast is very attractive and very fine and story flows so naturally, completely without cliché, that the movie becomes more a study of human behavior than of a routine 'coming out' movie. Well worth the viewer's time. In French with English subtitles. Grady Harp

Over the last year or so, I have been watching films made for other countries Television./ I am much impressed by the story quality of these films. This film is a prime example.Here in the United States,There has yet to be a film made for American network TV, that is completely honest & adult.Cable Television occasionally makes an honest adult film.What we have here is, an adult male (30'ish) about to tell his supposedly liberal parents he is gay & living with another guy.Now here is where the film departs from the usual clichés.This tale is about the parents & there reactions to the son they do love. They also have another son (18 yrs old),he & the gay brother get on fine.We meet other friends of the parents & others who play vital roles.There some comic moments,&even tho there are farcical elements, this is basically a drama, about parents reactions & how they they cope.This is a film for the all persons Gay & Straight, There is no nudity, violence, or sex scenes, (outside of seeing people in bed )there is some language BUT it is not offensive..Ratings ***1/2 (out of 4) 91 points(out of 100) IMDb 8 out of 10