Renown war photographer Isabelle Reed (Isabelle Huppert) died close to home in a car crash. Her work is getting an exhibit with work partner Richard (David Strathairn). Her older son Jonah (Jesse Eisenberg) returns home to help after having a new baby. Her younger son Conrad (Devin Druid) is introverted and has a crush on classmate Melanie (Ruby Jerins). Conrad is furious when he discovers his father (Gabriel Byrne)'s new fling with his teacher Hannah (Amy Ryan). The family struggles to come to terms with their loss and their differing memories of Isabelle.

Norwegian filmmaker Joachim Trier creates a compelling dysfunctional family. The movie would probably work better concentrating on Conrad as a coming-of-age story. It may not help that Druid is not the most accomplished actor. The allure of following the great adult actors is too much for Trier. These are interesting characters if only he could harness them better visually and narratively.

Louder than Bombs is a frustrating movie because it's so beautifully edited and directed but everything about it just falls flat.

The film is about the Reeds, a family made up of a father and his two sons, one an adult starting his own family, the other a teen, who are all coping with the loss of the mother of the family Isabelle, a war photographer who died 4 years earlier. The events in the film are triggered because a retrospective of Isabelle's work is being put on and a friend and journalist writing an article regarding her life warns Isabelle's widow that he plans to be "honest" about the way she died implying that the car crash she died in might not have been accidental after all. The rest of the film follows these three men as they stumble around their lives, reminiscing about the Isabelle they knew and didn't know and struggling to move forward.

It's a very watchable film, but it's also somehow not enough. The struggles of the film feel self-indulgent and it's one of those films where women exist only to be lusted over or listen sympathetically to the men as they talk about their problems and throw tantrums. Even legendary actress Isabelle Huppert, as the ghost that haunts the family, doesn't get much to chew on. The worst part is that it's a movie that isn't easy to write off entirely. The youngest son is a bit of a writer and the way his text is layered over with images leads to some beautiful editing and some true movie magic. It's just a shame that these great moments don't quite live up to what they could have been if they had had strong emotion to back them up.

Good films capture the essence of life, of growing up, the pain, the exclusion, the dynamics that are often felt, and less explored.

I shared the tears of Conrad during the telling "Walk with Melanie" part in which the self reflection recognizes, in the moment, a special time with an adored person that will never come to anything. The tears flowing perhaps at recognition of that, or that the person is not the idol you make them to appear and that its all for not anyway. Who hasn't had an experience like that during a boyhood crush?

The interaction between the brothers is breathtaking and the advice not to share the letter is classic indication of love, of the older brother understanding the pain and not wanting Conrad to further inure his pain.

Strangely though the minutes with Melanie ends up being a tonic for Conrad in which he could move through his pain, even obtain reassurance that it was nice that Melanie could even think that Tuesday lunch would be nice with him. Its touching too in that it is obvious that Conrad, and Jonah are intellects and the girl, in reality, through the described misplaced High School hierarchy, probably looks up to Conrad as well albeit this can't be communicated within the high school corridors of cool.

I comment extensively on the Walk with Melanie part of the movie because it is one of the classic unsequestered young love moments captured in modern film. So eloquent even within the context of what the sad

and tenuous connection was. Walking an inebriated girl home and there being no other connection. With the soundtrack grabbing hold at that exact moment and reprised in the closing credits with the namesake "louder than bombs" perfectly capturing the emotion of the film.

The whole film is mesmerizing albeit I felt the mother, played by Isabel Huppert was weak. Perhaps because she was so unlikable. The movie did not accurately or meaningfully depict how a women would chose war correspondence over caring for her children or how and why that would occur. Nor did it explain a women falling for a despicably played Richard (David Straithairn) who I have liked in films but who played an unlikable character in this one. Plus that she is married to Gabriel Byrne. One has to suspend belief to believe that somebody would prefer Straithairn over Byrne. Or that his children would find him so unlikable. Perhaps some casting mistakes but the brothers, and Melanie, and the teacher were letter perfect casting.