Perry Kate Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

IslandGuru Who payed the critics

Huievest Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Micah Lloyd Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

gizmomogwai Beau Pere is a film that works on a variety of levels- comedy, drama, tragedy, romance. It hits directly on target on a number of areas. Unsurprisingly, as a story about a 30-year-old man who has an affair with his 14-year-old stepdaughter- played by an underage actress with nude scenes- Beau Pere has been derided in North America as exploitation. It's not. There are no explicit sex scenes, and what nudity there is adds to the film.Despite puritanical complaints, this is not a film promoting sex with minors. A deeper look of the film suggests the reverse. The stepfather Remi and stepdaughter Marion are both sick people. Remi is faced with blow after blow, a struggling career, threatened poverty, a failing marriage, death of a loved one, loss of a home. Marion gets an appalling shock when her mother is killed in a car crash. They try to pick up the pieces, but sexual confusion creeps in. The relationship may be sick, the love may be twisted, but these characters are always sympathetic. Remi knows the affair is wrong and in the end tries to move towards an adult woman, but the shift to normalcy may be gradual, and there is a sinister hint that history can repeat itself.Both of the main characters are portrayed well (Dewaere has sad eyes) and the film doesn't have many flaws apart from the car accident scene in the beginning which is a little too goofy. The movie has a lot of similarities to Lolita, but enough differences to make it worthwhile. In fact, I prefer it to Kubrick's film (and I'm a Kubrick fan). Beau Pere worked with me as a sorrowful drama the first time I watched it, and on second viewing I could appreciate how funny it is as well. Encore!

Coventry Yes, I am aware of the fact the rather vulgar and tasteless subject line entirely misfits the overall tone of this film, but when else am I going to have the chance to use this clichéd saying in a review? "Stepfather" is a provocative and mildly controversial "Lolita"-themed drama, but with a healthy sense of humor and extremely likable characters. Britney Spears provided the best one-line plot description imaginable for this film: Not a Girl, Not yet a Woman. After the sudden and accidental death of her mother, beautiful 14-year-old Marion insists on staying with her manic depressed stepfather instead of returning to her natural father. The girl soon openly confesses Rémi she has romantic feelings for him and doesn't really make it a secret that she wants to sleep with him. Rémi tries very hard (honestly, he does) to resist the temptation, but what's a lonely man to do when a scantily clad young gal keeps throwing herself at him and continues to sneak into his bed at night? Most of the – admittedly overlong - film focuses on Rémi fighting, accepting and regretting his own feelings towards Marion, but still the film never really feels boring and there are plenty of neat details to keep you pleased. The narrative, for example, is ingenious as several characters (including Rémi) explain the story whilst facing the camera. He works as unsuccessful pianist in a restaurant and the camera often pans around him as he's narrating his own life with people dining in the background. It's also quite remarkable how the script never reverts to being gratuitous exploitation, even though all the themes hint towards that direction. A truly ravishing and often barely dressed minor literally offers herself at this potent, thirty-something guy, and yet there are no explicit sex sequences or gratuitous insinuations being made. Ariel Besse (16 at the time and a terrific actress) strips fully naked a couple of times, but all the sex & nudity sequences are elegantly presented and not the least bit offensive. Patrick Dewaere is great as well and it was quite a shock to discover he committed suicide shortly after the release of this film. According to several sources, including the IMDb, the actors struggled with depressions and mental torture for years and years. The only consolation he had was that his own mental condition gave an even deeper dimension to his character in "Stepfather". Recommended.

lambiepie-2 I just happen to own the VHS version of this film. Again, my introduction to foreign films came from the Los Angeles Based "Z" Channel (even with the hundreds of premium channels out there in 2005, I still miss Z for I haven't seen in on American TV since! Quite sad, actually) and Sikel and Ebert's review of this.The well-older guy falling in love with his 14 year old step-daughter theme began as a very disturbing theme to me before watching this. So...why did I view this film? As with 'Pandora' (yes, the Greek myth), I just had to know and the "Z" channel provided the choice. In watching, the film didn't go where I thought it would. It was funny. This film does take into account many sensibilities, and the unveiling of feelings that are quite into the "You can't help who you fall in love with" bit. Who's cruising on whom - is the ultimate question and it may not be as clear cut as you may think. Is it the young step daughter? Or is it the man trying to hold back what he had always done in the past? It's a question that'll keep running through your mind in this. That's what makes it adult-oriented, it's the subject matter, and trying to address the subject matter and not necessarily (potential) sexual encounters.This is an adult oriented themed foreign film somewhat playing on the 'Lolita' theme, but with more of a twist. Hits everything, makes you wonder and provides a story...maybe not one for everyone, but one that has many sides and allows you to be the judge of it.

WilliamCKH I really love films such as Beau Pere. When you read the description of the film (a man in his 30's has a love affair with his 14-yr. old stepdaughter after his wife dies), you kinda think that it's going to be a study about some middle-aged pervert engaging in immoral acts of both incest and pedophilia and that in the end the movie will be some kind of moral tale about the evils of such behavior.But surprisingly, the film engages you, and paralyzes your initial judgements. It pulls you into its world and somehow you become fascinated by the 14-year old girl and slowly begin to sympathize with the stepfather. The performance of Ariel Besse is so beautiful. She has a matter-of-fact way of dealing with the world, in love, sex, relationships, etc.. She doesn't try to be cute (refreshing) and overly charming. As the movie progresses, she seems to have aged before your eyes, (though physically she remains 14). and suddenly, concepts of right and wrong become blurred. I've often read that in the artistic tradition of the French, the concept of morality does not deal specifically with what is right and wrong, persay.. but what is right and wrong as life is lived. Morality comes in the decisions you make as you live it, not as a pre-condition. It's hard to explain... but as the great french director Renoir once said......everyone has his reasons.P.S. I wish Bertrand Blier would make more movies. The subjects in his movies such as this and others made over 20 years ago (Les Valseuses, Get out you Handkerchiefs, Too Beautiful for you, etc..) would shock people even by today's standards. But because he gives so much humanity to his characters, these taboo subjects can be seen in a different slant... and essentially isn't that what film, or art for that matter, is really all about.