AllMovie

La Moitié Gauche Du Frigo director Philippe Falardeau follows up that Toronto International Film Festival favorite with this darkly comic study in abandonment and innocence lost as related to a troubled young boy from an explosively dysfunctional family. Set in 1968, Falardeau's adaptation of Bruno Herbert's novel centers on the early life experience of ten year old Leon (Antoine L'Écuyer in his screen debut). Leon's proclivity towards theft, vandalism, breaking and entering, running away from home, and failed suicide attempts might lead the casual observer to deduct that his parents were a horrifically mismatched pair prone to window-rattling domestic tiffs that are frequently punctuated by broken dishes and shredded paintings - a deduction that couldn't be more accurate considering the fact that his parents relationship is rapidly deteriorating. His father is distant, and his mother's conspiratorial approach to child-rearing ensures that Leon has precious few people to confide in outside of his best friend Lea, who seems to come from an equally discordant household. With each inch Leon's parents move towards the brink, their son's rebellion seems to increase tenfold. Later, when his mother abandons the family to start a new life in Greece and Lea announces her plans to move into a dictatorship, the young hellion embraces his wild side as never before.