La Tresse, by Laetitia Colombani: a film as strong as the book? (critical)

Grey’s Anatomy star Kim Raver is the heroine of the adaptation of the eponymous novel written by the director.

The director Laetitia Colombani adapted her first novel herself The braid published by Grasset in 2017. A publishing success sold more than 5 million copies around the world. An ode to hope and female solidarity released at the end of 2023 in cinemas, and to be (re)watched this evening on Canal +.

“India. Smita is an Untouchable. She dreams of seeing her daughter escape her miserable condition and enter school.

Italy. Giulia works in her father’s workshop. When he suffers an accident, she discovers that the family business is ruined.

Canada. Sarah, a renowned lawyer, is going to be promoted to head of her firm when she learns that she is ill.

Three lives, three women, three continents. Three battles to fight.

Although they don’t know each other, Smita, Giulia and Sarah are linked without knowing it by what is most intimate and most singular about them.”

In the casting, we will find the star of Grey’s Anatomy, Kim Raveras well as the Italian actress Fotinì Peluso recently crossed in Greek salad and the Indian star Mia Maelzer

Is this adaptation worth it? Here is Bastien Assié’s review for First :

Six years after the success in bookstores of her homonymous novel, Laetitia Colombani (He Loves Me … He Loves Me Not And My stars and me) returns to production by adapting The braid in an choral film presenting the misfortunes and struggles of three women (Italian, Indian and Canadian) whose destinies are paradoxically linked. He makes us witnesses to their daily lives on three continents and social strata to construct a back and forth between worlds that are completely opposed. This is the kind of story that you can’t say anything about without saying too much, and that’s where its weakness lies. This jerky journey where the dramatic sliders are constantly pushed to the maximum sometimes becomes indigestible and resolves too much to bet on its twist. Without losing the fans of the book, the screaming ode to adversity gives a bitter depth to globalization which overwhelms a little without wanting to.