A magnetic Virginie Efira stars as Sylvie, a single mum who lives in a modest flat and works the night shifts in a local bar where the punters are creative and bohemian types. Sylvie lives with her two sons, Sofiane (Alexis Tonetti) and Jean-Jacques (Félix Lefebvre), while often caring for her seizure-prone brother Hervé (Arieh Worthalter). His nonchalant attitude often turns detrimental. One evening, while Sylvie is at work, she learns that Sofiane has been taken to hospital with burns across his chest after a chip-pan mishap, and it results in a domino effect of catastrophic events that split the family down the middle.
The dust settles for the family after the incident before an eerie knock at the door kicks it all up again as social services have been alerted to Sofiane’s injury. They are represented by Louise Henry (India Hair), the archetypal villain in her outfit of moral supremacy, clipboard and all, just longing to give the news they will be taking Sofiane away and placing him in a foster home, for what they claim is for “just two weeks”. A frantic and desperate Sylvie must now jump through the hoops that social services throw at her. These hoops begin to get smaller and impossible to squeeze through, which only adds more woe to Sylvie and Jean-Jacques whose physical and mental health is deteriorating, and quickly. Sylvie decides to attack head-on with that legendary fiery temperament (according to her friends) and enlists lawyers, her estranged brother Alain (Mathieu Demy), and associates to get Sofiane back safely to her from those evil clutches.
All to Play For does a great job of highlighting the flawed social care system and the people, who are just doing their jobs but are also naïve to the rules not benefitting the child or the parent. It’s an establishment set up to teach lessons and mostly results in implosion. Sylvie is hot-headed and fearless. Such determination feeds the hands of those that have taken from her plate. Efira reaches into her box of acting tricks in order to portray a woman who becomes a manifestation of all the mothers who are fighting for their children. Sylvie could even be deemed as a beacon of hope to those who have had their energy zapped over so many torturous years. She is a general at war, with her eldest son as her loyal captain at her side in a battle she is repeatedly told is unwinnable.
Sylvie is not without her faults, and the family also has to grapple with dysfunction at its core. The cracks began with her own parent’s premature death and the resulting strain it left on the three siblings. Fast forward to the subtle hints regarding Jean-Jacques’s eating disorder which eventually comes to light; eating cakes and other niceties after experiencing his mental health woes but eventually using this passion for food as a pathway to a culinary career would be the dream. Sylvie herself had opportunities for a musical career abroad that she rebuffed for her family, feeling the need to mention it at several points which only cements the regret in her decision. It is during trauma-ridden times that the family bands together and the relationship she has with her sons is beautiful. The chemistry between the three actors feels extremely genuine and authentic, they must be feeling the strain too.
Deloget’s film expands a dilemma so often common – it could be happening to your neighbours – and into broader eyes. She tests the mental fortitude of our heroine so much, against a system that we now all automatically hate (the film really does this to you). The casting is a stroke of genius though and it turns into a case of allowing Efira to do her thing, and the rest are there to support her. It’s a simple but illuminating story and the film is riveting as a result. You pray for this woman and her sons to all be reunited because you know she’s a good mother who deeply cares for her sons, but you’d better stay out of her way because she has frightening wrath.
Delphine Deloget’s debut festure shows online for a month as part of MyFrenchFilmFestival.
