Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s drama makes good company of Virginie Efira and Tao Okamoto, and gives care the attention it deserves. The conversations reward patience, though the more instructive stretches could use firmer editing.
All of a Sudden is worth a long evening for anyone who enjoys a drama that takes its time over conversation. Ryusuke Hamaguchi follows the friendship between Marie-Lou Fontaine and Mari Morisaki into questions about how people look after one another. At 196 minutes, the film gives those questions considerable attention. Much of that time is rewarding, although some conversations continue after their point is clear.
Virginie Efira plays Marie-Lou Fontaine, with Tao Okamoto as Mari Morisaki, and their companionship is the most persuasive reason to stay. There is a warmth between them that makes the philosophical discussion feel connected to actual people. Tao Okamoto’s delicacy is particularly valuable in a film so ready to spell out its beliefs. The friendship needs room to develop, and these performances give the leisurely pace a purpose.
The attention to caregivers and patients gives those beliefs something practical to address. Dignity can become a comfortable word in a script; the business of caring for somebody gives it consequences. We find that emphasis moving, particularly the insistence that tenderness belongs among everyday necessities. The quieter encounters make the case more convincingly than the explanatory passages, because the people receiving care matter as much as the people giving it.
Alan Guichaoua handles the cinematography, Mila Preli the production design and Samuel Andreyev the music. The visual and sound work has drawn praise for its sensitivity, an appropriate quality in a film this interested in listening. A drama of long conversations needs to make time spent together feel worthwhile. The natural companionship between the leads is the clearest reason this one does.
Azusa Yamazaki’s editing is central to that question of attention. A brisker version would risk reducing the friendship to a succession of useful points, and the film deserves credit for allowing it to develop. Still, its length gives the more prescriptive conversations time to become tiresome. We would have preferred a little less explanation once the actors have already made the humane point clear.
Ryusuke Hamaguchi and Léa Le Dimna’s screenplay is strongest when it trusts the friendship to carry its ideas. Its optimism is welcome, and the attention to caregiving gives it more substance than a general request for everyone to be nicer. But the tendency to prescribe better ways of living can make the conversations feel too carefully directed towards agreement. The occasional sweetness is easier to forgive than the feeling that an answer has been approved before the discussion begins.
For a drama built around conversation, the test is whether we want to remain in the company of the people speaking. These two leads make a persuasive case, including through stretches that could be shortened. We recommend it for its patient performances and its willingness to treat care as something worthy of sustained attention. Allow a whole evening, and perhaps agree beforehand who gets to stop the discussion afterwards.
