We've seen variations on the character before. But Fanny Ardant's performance as the straitlaced wife ... is insightful and note-perfect.
Bright Days Ahead
2013 · 1h 34m · NOT RATED
Drama, Romance
Directed by
Marion Vernoux
Overview
Bright days ahead? Caroline has retired, at last. A new life lies before her: time to take care of her children, her husband, and, most of all, herself. However, she soon comes to realize that this new freedom is synonymous with boredom and idleness. Especially when she receives a membership to her neighborhood’s senior club as a birthday present… Reluctant at first, she nevertheless decides to take the plunge. Oddly enough, she meets great people there, starting with the young computer science teacher, who is far from insensitive to her charms. Caroline gradually takes control of her life again and lives a second youth: taking a new lover, living new experiences, breaking the rules, not doing what’s expected of her… Who said that retirement was the beginning of the end and not a new beginning?
Director and cast
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
Ardant might wrestle with alienation, but Bright Days Ahead never risks alienating its self-satisfied target audience.
"Bright Days Ahead" offers an interesting twist on the May-December romance.
The well-observed script touches on a number of everyday issues about the aging process - whether you're pushing 40 or passing 60 - that add a tender and enlightening layer to this engaging, leisurely paced film.
Struggling to get out from under the film's too-cheery surface is a much more serious movie about grown-ups confronting the depredations of old age.
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