Madame Sidonie in Japan

Isabelle Huppert, one of the best actors working today, crafts a uniquely soft and vulnerable character in Élise Girard’s low-key charmer. The eponymous Sidonie is a writer, predominantly known for an early novel that charted her grief after the deaths of family members in a car crash. Now grieving another loss, she agrees to a brief tour in Japan to celebrate a new translation of this book, accompanied by soft-spoken interpreter Kenzo (Tsuyoshi Ihara). What unfolds is a moving and gentle portrait of a woman slowly emerging from her protective carapace through probing conversations with Kenzo, a side trip to the famous art island of Naoshima, and the ghostly return of her deceased husband. Eschewing broad strokes of closure, Girard instead grabs at the heart with a beautifully nuanced look at a woman who finds a new lease on life. (San Francisco International Film Festival)