In the House

Directed by François Ozon

(R)

***

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“It seems against the laws of nature that a film as bookish and self-consciously clever as In the House should also be such fun,” said Anthony Lane in The New Yorker. A sly ode to storytelling from the French director François Ozon, it tracks a teacher’s growing obsession with a yarn being spun by his most talented student—a yarn that hooks the audience too: Writing about a friend’s household in a series of essays, 16-year-old Claude (a “shyly unsmiling” Ernst Umhauer) reveals a voyeur’s interest in the family’s doings, particularly those of his friend’s attractive mother (Emmanuelle Seigner). “Maybe no other actor in the world” can match Fabrice Luchini’s knack for portraying neurotic intellectuals, so we’re with him as his character encourages Claude to keep the story going, said A.O. Scott in The New York Times. But as the movie picks up speed, “it also starts to sputter,” losing control of the early scenes’ sinister yet comical mood. In the end, it can be hard to decide if Ozon’s meditation on art is merely clever, or actually wise, said Ella Taylor in NPR.org. Still, it’s “mordantly funny.”