This French film from Luc Jacquet, narrated by Kate Winslet in its English version, is set on the mountainsides of Ain. Like March of the Penguins, the director's successful first feature-length film, it is ravishingly shot.
It tells a simple tale about a little girl who makes friends with a fox but finally realises that to love doesn't necessarily mean to possess. Children will undoubtedly adore the film, and the local tourist board will probably have to take its phones off the hook.
Unlike Penguins, it is not nearly ruined by a maudlin American-style commentary, since Winslet has reasonably unsentimental lines and handles them well. But it does suffer, like Penguins, from a swirling and repetitive music score overlaying nearly every scene.
It wins most of its points because the vixen, who ever so gingerly becomes the girl's friend before reverting to the wild again, is not painted as a human with nice fur and a beguiling disposition. She's an animal who can just about be persuaded to climb the stairs to the girl's bedroom but soon gets hysterics, smashes up the room and jumps through the the window.
A vixen called Titus plays the part and very nicely, too, while the girl (Bertille Noel-Bruneau) has a charming smile and a look of wonder that's entirely appropriate.
But when all is said and done, it's the Alpine scenery that steals the picture as we go through the seasons before concentrating on a gloriously-hued autumn. I hope it wasn't tarted up with CG effects - it doesn't look like it.
The Fox And The Child
Cert: U
