"Let's start again." The opening line of "Hold Me Tight" hits a little differently the second time around — and the movie, a jagged little heartbreaker from French writer-director Mathieu Amalric, is certainly built for repeat viewings. That might seem like an odd thing to say about a picture that deals in acutely painful emotions, venturing into dramatic terrain that some viewers may be content to visit once if at all. But Amalric, a superb actor-turned-reliably-fine filmmaker ("On Tour," "The Blue Room"), has a deft touch with surprises.
And so when you first see Clarisse (Vicky Krieps) slip out of her house on a cold morning — stealing one last glance at the sleeping figures of her husband, Marc (Arieh Worthalter), and their children, Lucie (Anne-Sophie Bowen-Chatet) and Paul (Sacha Ardilly), before driving off in a vintage AMC Pacer — the full significance of what she's doing may not be fully apparent. Your uncertainty may persist when, sometime later, Marc and the kids awaken and get started on their day, perplexed though not shattered (yet) to find their wife and mom missing.
As the movie progresses, toggling between Clarisse's travels and her family's efforts to carry on without her, it's as if they've all forged an unspoken pact: Marc, Lucie and Paul will move on without Clarisse, never seeing her again or really questioning why things have to be this way. But none of them can keep their sadness at bay, and Amalric, working with editor Francois Gedigier, has sly ways of bridging the gap between his characters, formally if not physically.
