In the midst of a divorce, Miriam Besson decides to ask for exclusive custody to her son, in order to protect him from a father that she is accusing of violence. The judge-in-charge of the file grants a shared custody to the father whom it considers abused. Taken as a hostage between his parents, Julien Besson will do everything to prevent the worst from happening.
First-time filmmaker Xavier Legrand based this harrowing chronicle on extensive interviews with those on the frontlines of domestic abuse, and he communicates his findings with great sensitivity and withering insight.
The film maintains an almost unbearable level of tension throughout and at times makes uncomfortable viewing, as any movie about domestic violence should.
We've all seen these sorts of domestic bogeymen before in any number of Lifetime movies. But rarely are they presented with the matter-of-fact naturalism that Legrand brings to his Venice Silver Lion winner.
"Custody" can be difficult, even wrenching to watch, but it always plays fair with the audience, and the experience, worth every minute expended, is impossible to forget.
This bleak and harsh divorce drama is a riveting portrait of a family in crisis, an emotionally brutal story that runs unceasingly from deeply unhappy to potentially fatal.
