The Courageous Review: Keeping Up Appearances

Highlighting the struggles of working-class families in a nation known for its wealth, The Courageous is an impressive slice of social realism.

In this sun-drenched greenery nestled between wine regions and alpine resorts takes place the story of a struggling single mother resorting to desperate measures to make ends meet.

In addition to this sobering juxtaposition, the small-town setting is both a solution to and the cause of the problems of the film’s central family. Through subtle dialogue we get the impression that Jule (Ophélia Kolb) and her three children have moved around a lot, a combination of housing insecurity and legal troubles forcing them into a nomadic lifestyle. In a local community where nothing is kept secret for long, Jule’s reputation precedes her.

The film is light on plot, primarily following Jule’s scrapes with the law, her children’s self-sufficiency when she is absent, and the little white lies she tells to keep them on side. A long-vacant house that the mother hopes can secure her family’s future is the film’s holy grail, though eldest child Claire (Jasmine Kalisz Saurer) has reached an age that allows her to see, at least partially, through her mother’s charade of dependability.

Kolb’s hair, makeup, clothing and general demeanour betray none of Jule’s private difficulties; she looks like a healthy, fairly comfortable member of society. The lead actress deftly portrays a woman whose priority is keeping up appearances in front of her children and other members of the community, often to her family’s detriment. Only when the camera lingers on her face after the children have left the room does the pain behind that warm maternal smile make itself known.

Shaky handheld shots and swift-moving pans add a sense of motion and instability to the images, even the most mundane scenes being haunted by a nervousness that courses through the film. Jule is frequently framed with shadows lurking in the negative space, encroaching from one corner or another, as cinematographer Andi Widmer reflects Julien Bouissoux’s implicit script with just a touch of symbolism, nothing too on the nose.

Indeed, the whole thing is an exercise in restraint, from its barely detectable sound design to the modest 80-minute runtime, credits included. We learn little of the family’s backstory – where is the father? How did they end up here? What is the extent of Jule’s dark past? It’s all up for interpretation as what goes unspoken in the film takes precedence over that which is explicitly stated.

The Courageous is a clever little thing, drawing the curtains on its intimate family story before many contemporary films have even got going. As a pared-back character study full of inference and suggestion, it may not find a huge audience. But if Jasmine Gordon’s intention was to leave us wanting more from her, she’s certainly achieved that.

The Courageous was screened at TIFF on September , 2024. Read our list of films to watch at the 2024 Toronto Film Festival!