“Les Hautes Herbes”, on Arte: a summer tale coupled with a minimalist thriller – Le Monde

ARTE – THURSDAY, JANUARY 6 AT 8:55 P.M. – MINI-SERIES

The High Herbs ultimately only have the name series. The division into three parts of what could have been a television film – the three episodes are also broadcast consecutively – seems to have no other reason than to spare a brief moment of breathing, just the time to say that, yes, it’s worth to keep watching. Jérôme Bonnell’s mini-series resuscitates a form of old-fashioned TV night in this, and this is a compliment.

To tell this story of murder in a small town in Touraine, the filmmaker discreetly summons the ghosts of the Grand Chemin and of L’Effrontée, and puts his camera at the height of a child. Jules, a taciturn boy, is placed in the good care of a young couple while his mother recovers from a serious traffic accident. Lucile is a journalist and covers the closing of a factory which feeds the anger of local “yellow vests”. It’s summer, she registers Jules at the football club to occupy him while she works. Her silent husband, Glenn, quit the police force after his father’s death and furnished his days by emptying the family home. At first touchy, he finally lets himself be touched by the child.

Jérôme Bonnell had the excellent idea of ​​entrusting these roles to two gifted actors whose faces are unfamiliar to the public. Louise Chevillotte (discovered in Lover for a day, by Philippe Garrel) gives her character of a young bride barely out of adolescence the aplomb of a mother. In the role of Glenn, Jonathan Couzinié subtly deconstructs the figure of the dark beauty.

Character thickness

The fragile balance of this ephemeral family is shaken by the disappearance of Mounir, a seasonal worker who nobody cared about until Lucile’s mother, Eve (Emmanuelle Devos, perfect as an obstinate bourgeois), pushes the police to investigate. The summer tale then turns into a minimalist thriller against a backdrop of social violence and family rivalries.

But the thickness of the characters, including secondary ones – India Hair in a sensual country guard, Lazare Gousseau in a depressive and alcoholic oddball -, in a way, prevents us from being interested in the plot. Moreover, the outcome will not necessarily convince: too few clues have been sown and the series loses its power of fascination when it opens up to physical violence. But we have to conclude, and it’s a shame, because we would have spent a little more time with these actors that Jérôme Bonnell directs with great care and accuracy.

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