‘When Fall Is Coming’ mixes motherly love with poisonous mushrooms - The Boston Globe (2025)

Michelle lives in the French countryside, in a house too large for an older woman to keep by herself. We see her cleaning up, wandering in the woods and tending to her garden, all depicted in scenes that take their time to unfold. Meanwhile, in Paris, her daughter, Valérie (Ludivine Sagnier) lives with her son, Lucas (Garlan Erlos), in a flat Michelle gave them.

Valérie’s relationship with her mother is tense; her anger is rooted mostly in the lax way Michelle raised her. An early sequence highlights her seemingly uneventful visit to Michelle’s house. Valérie is going through a nasty divorce, which Lucas blames on himself. Michelle comforts him as his mother argues with his father on her cellphone outside.

Sounds like a standard family drama, n’est-ce pas? We expect to see battles between mother and daughter, a reconciliation between Marie-Claude and Vincent once he’s released, and the growing bond between a grandmother and grandson. And we get all that as the film unfolds over a leisurely 104 minutes.

But lest we forget, this is a film by François Ozon. Though the director dabbles in other genres (his work includes last year’s raucous screwball comedy, “The Crime Is Mine,” and 2019’s harrowing Catholic church child molestation drama, “By the Grace of God”), he’s most famous for writing twisty plots in the thriller genre.

Here, he puts viewers familiar with his work on guard by casting Sagnier, the star of perhaps his most well-known film, 2003’s “Swimming Pool.” In that erotic thriller, Sagnier was the young and seductive femme fatale, of sorts, acting opposite Charlotte Rampling’s older, British mystery writer. In this film, she has an almost supernatural role as a manifestation of guilt.

Ozon (who wrote the screenplay in collaboration with Philippe Piazzo) toys with the audience in very subtle ways. This film is a master class in keeping an understated tone that’s more unsettling than sinister. The cast, full of French acting veterans, is made up of willing and able accomplices. We’re not sure what they’re up to, but even the most mundane events raise questions.

For example, Valérie’s aforementioned “seemingly uneventful” visit to her mother’s house culminates with Michelle’s mushroom dish accidentally poisoning Valérie and nearly killing her. Or was it intentional? Michelle didn’t eat any of the mushrooms, and she knew Lucas disliked them intensely. Could this have been a failed murder attempt?

Valérie does think her mother was trying to kill her, though this may just be anger clouding her judgment. As a result, she refuses to let Lucas see his grandmother. Valérie’s rage stems from the shame she feels knowing that, when she was a kid, her mother and Marie-Claire were high-priced sex workers in Paris.

Meanwhile, a fresh out of prison Vincent attempts to commit a chivalrous act by speaking to Valérie on Michelle’s behalf. The two knew each other in childhood, so this visit doesn’t seem random or unusual. Their scene leads to yet another incident where we’re unsure if what happened was accidental or not.

In addition to meditating on how children believe their mothers ruined their childhood with bad parenting, “When Fall Is Coming” intrigues us by giving just enough information to keep us guessing. When a pregnant police investigator (Sophie Guillemin) gets involved after the mushroom incident, her lines of questioning lead to answers that we know are untrue. Who’s protecting whom, and why?

Ozon is wise enough to give us only some of the answers. By the end of “When Fall Is Coming,” we recognize the film for what it is: a character study elevated by Vincent’s superb performance. She’s in almost every scene, only stopping to rest in her final moment onscreen. Ozon films this scene in an overhead shot that, like the rest of this movie, feels peaceful yet unsettling.

★★★½

WHEN FALL IS COMING

Directed by François Ozon. Written by Ozon in collaboration with Philippe Piazzo. Starring Hélène Vincent, Josiane Balasko, Pierre Lottin, Ludivine Sagnier, Garlan Erlos, Sophie Guillemin. At Coolidge Corner. 104 minutes. In French with English subtitles. Unrated (language).

Odie Henderson is the Boston Globe's film critic.