Director: Luc Jacquet

Runtime: 94mins

March Of The Penguins director Luc Jacquet brings us another narrative of the natural world in the breathtakingly filmed The Fox & The Child, although one with a personal resonance for the filmmaker, based apparently on his own childhood experiences with a wild fox.

The Child of the title – played by the pixie-ish Bertille Noël-Bruneau, who looks like a tiny, freckled, ginger Björk – lives in a picturesque alpine location with her parents (who we never see), and one day spies a fox hunting for food on the edge of a forest. Enchanted, she returns day after day, hoping to entice the fox closer. She succeeds, and in doing so begins a playful friendship that leads her to encounters with wolves and bears, deep mountain caverns, and a greater understanding of the relationship between humans and wild animals.

First and foremost, The Fox & The Child is a film for children – a simple tale told with extraordinary clarity and a genuine sense of innocence and wonder. No other humans – beyond the hand of a hunter on a rifle’s trigger – is seen in the film beyond The Child. Animals however, enjoy a much greater amount of screen time – from badgers to snow-voles, hedgehogs to salamanders, Jacquet’s experience as a wildlife filmmaker is put to very good use.

The film is no documentary though, and dramatic scenes link the moments of quiet wonder, including a surprisingly thrilling chase scene when a lynx decides The Fox looks like a tasty morsel (cats chasing dogs? Madness!) There isn’t much time given to realism (The Child’s accidental overnight stay in the woods after some cave exploration results in her being grounded for only a week. Most parents I know would probably move to the city if their kid went missing in a wildlife reserve with several species of predator wandering about), and the gradual tameness of The Fox becomes more and more like the wish-fulfilment fantasy of a child. There’s no real depth to be found; the lessons are simple, and the English narration by Kate Winslet – while perfectly serviceable for the under-10s – will eventually start to make adults feel like they’re back in pre-school being told a story by a visiting member of the royal family. Another distracting blow is the poor French-to-English dubbing of The Child’s regular one-sided chats with The Fox. If Bertille sees the English version before she grows up, she’ll probably develop a complex about having an imaginary speech impediment.

Despite those complaints, the wildlife and nature scenes are filmed in such glorious widescreen – the camera soaking up all the beauty of four seasons in the French Alps – that it’s hard to remain unmoved by the sights on screen; all of them refreshingly CGI-free. Some kids may be bored by the lack of whiz-bang flashiness, but children of a certain temperament with a curiosity about animals will adore this movie – after all, who wouldn’t want to have their own real live fox buddy to wile away the summer with?

***1/2 

TOPHER HEALY

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