Ever have to sit through an evening where an elderly relative showed you old photographs and told you tales of the good old days? Remember how boring it was? Now imagine that but with someone you don't know. That is essentially what The Thorn In The Heart is – watching a stranger reminisce about places you've never been (nor will ever go) and people you've never heard of. Unless your last name is Gondry, this documentary has limited appeal.
Director Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Science Of Sleep) points his camera at aunt Suzette Gondry, as she wistfully recounts her days as a teacher in obscure French schools in the '50s, '60s, '70s, and '80s. Suzette is an open interviewee, candid about her time in low-rent schools, and is delighted to happen across ex-pupils who remember her classes. One of her ex-pupils is her son, Jean-Yves, with whom she has a turbulent relationship, calling him the thorn in her heart. The relationship, which suffered because Jean-Yves claims she was always the teacher, whether they were in class or at home, was severely strained when Suzette neglected to tell him that his father had died for three days. It hasn't recovered.
An easy-going but often lazy affair, The Thorn In The Heart could have been more interesting than it is if Gondry had teased out more of the mother-son relationship, but the majority of the running time is dedicated to her visiting her old, now rundown and abandoned, schools – that's where the fireplace used to be; trucks used to drive by here; we had forty children in this class, etc. The viewer tries hard to get on board, to imagine that s/he too had a teacher like Suzette and studied in a classroom like that. No dice. It's strange that Gondry favoured this trip down memory lane rather than the Suzette Vs Jean-Yves problem, which would have made an excellent story.
The series of interviews is interrupted sporadically with Gondry's typically quirky DIY touch, but they are few and far between and The Thorn In The Heart can be deemed self-indulgent even by hard-line Gondry fans.
