In his searing French thriller Custody, writer-director Xavier Legrand paints the most elemental and realistic depiction of domestic violence that I’ve seen. Custody begins with a child custody hearing over an almost 18-year-old daughter and an 11-year-old son. Neither kids wants anything to do with the dad, and there’s more than a hint of spousal abuse in their past, but the court awards the father weekend visits with his son.
The father (Denis Ménochet) is acting very reasonably at the custody hearing, of course, but we soon see signs of the need for domination and control that is the core of domestic violence. He can’t bear not knowing where his ex-wife (Léa Drucker) lives. He needs to be the “winner” in every transaction. With naked entitlement, he says “I get an extra hour because I picked you up an hour late”. Too vile even for his own parents, the father is an insistent stalker.
Especially through the eyes of the son (Thomas Gioria in a miraculous performance), Legrand helps the audience understand the traumatization of family violence. Every family member lives with dread of the father surprising them like a bogeyman. The boy takes on responsibility to protect his mom and sister by keeping the dad away from them – it’s an emotionally wracking burden that no child should bear. The mom is not a hero or a feminist icon – she just wants to survive and not be a victim.
Intimate partner violence is about power and control. In Custody, the father doesn’t react physically until the movie’s midpoint, and he doesn’t touch another character until almost the end. But, without hitting anyone, he is successful in terrorizing the family. By buzzing the mom’s doorbell in the middle of night, he proves that he really is a terrorist. And his lethality emerges in the thriller ending. LeGrand says that the thriller aspect of Custody comes organically from fear.
Every performance is excellent, and Menochet’s has received plaudits. But the child actor Thomas Gloria goes places you don’t expect a child to go; his performance is stunning. Menochet discusses his performance and Gioria’s in this Inside Picturehouse interview on YouTube.
As the sister, Mathilde Auneveux delivers a mesmerizing performance of Proud Mary at her birthday party. She is clearly distracted by at least one event in her life, but which is it?
In Custody, Legrand has also filmed the most perfectly shot pregnancy test scene ever.
Custody is the remarkable first feature from Xavier Lagrand. The story grew out of his Oscar-winning short film with the same actors, Just Before Losing Everything. Custody won Legrand the Silver Lion (Best Director) at the Venice film festival. I saw it at Silicon Valley’s Cinema Club months before its release.
Custody can be streamed from Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.