THE ACCIDENTAL HERO

Tom Maillard is a teenage boy for whom peace and fulfillment seem impossible. Restless and dissatisfied, he expects little of life, and is happy to relieve his frustration and boredom in rebellious ways. With flippant disregard, he shouts down his mother Valerie, a young, single mother and hard-working flight attendant, assuring her that he’ll go on doing whatever he pleases. Valerie is frustrated by Tom – who is all-too-quickly verging on adulthood – since he manifests all the instability that characterized his father, an airline pilot he has never met. Certain that Valerie drove his father away, Tom harbors a deep resentment for his mother. And yet, Tom and Valerie love and depend on each other, like two refugees stranded together on an emotional desert island.

Everything changes for Tom when he and Valerie are involved in a terrible car accident. Tom revives in the hospital, but finds his mother in a coma. Since they had been bitterly arguing when their car overturned, Tom is deeply remorseful, but has no one to whom he can confess his sorrow. When he is placed by the juvenile court in a group home, Tom faces new challenges getting along with his fellow residents (all of them similarly traumatized). His lifelong wish for a father figure is granted in the person of Malik, who oversees the group home, but Tom gets more than he bargained for when stoic, formidable Malik imposes the stern, and at times, stinging discipline that he has been missing in his life. When Valerie awakes from her coma, Tom is shocked to learn that she has lost her memory, which, he is told, may only come back through reminders of the past, and possibly through some terrible shock. With the support of Malik and a sympathetic female doctor, Tom tries to rebuild a relationship with his mother, offering her tokens of memories lost, and confronting a bank of memories that even he regrets. But when he learns the whereabouts of his long-lost grandparents, along with some sinister secrets about them, he must face a man’s decision: whether to restore Valerie’s horrific past to her, or protect her from its ravages... even as he confronts the demons of his own past.

Directed by Laurent Jaoui
90 min. / in French



“The movie is skillfully shot, appealingly and powerfully acted throughout, and the director’s restraint pulls you in deep.”
Tom Steele , OUT MAGAZINE

“It’s impossible not to be moved by the challenge this boy has taken on.”
TELE CABLE SATELLITE MONTHLY

“The characters are well-drawn and you really get a sense of what each of them is thinking and feeling. It’s a modestly powerful film!”
Daniel W. Kelly, DVD TALK




Optional English subtitles
Widescreen Presentation
Scene Selections
Coming Attractions
Dolby 5.1/2.0 Surround Sound