My Brother’s Band - Movie Review - Fremantle Shipping News

No wonder this movie was the hit of the Alliance Francaise French Film Festival – I saw it at a media screening recently and absolutely loved it.

If you are a cinephile who likes French movies, music, naturalistic acting, and a realistic plot – don’t miss this one.

Emmanuel Courcol’s wildly entertaining movie follows two brothers separated by fate and reunited by music.

After collapsing on stage, acclaimed orchestra conductor Thibaut Desormeaux (Benjamin Lavernhe de la Comédie Française) learns he has leukaemia. He needs a suitable bone-marrow donor. His best chance is his sister… but she turns out to be biologically unrelated to him. He learns that he is adopted and finds his biological brother, Jimmy Lecocq (Pierre Lottin), who has lived a very different life as a factory worker.

Jimmy is also a musician and has a special musical gift: he has perfect pitch. Jimmy’s background, the brothers’ limited memories of their mother, and a painful understanding of the reasons for their separation provide significant obstacles to success.

My Brother’s Band is a rousing, feel-great trip to the cinema. The supporting cast are all wonderful. It strikes the perfect harmony between laughter and tears to celebrate family and community.

The finale is magnificent – hint Ravel’s Bolero. It gained audience applause at the session I attended. It’s my favourite movie for 2025; catch it if you can.

I score this movie 10 out of 10.

Season starts 26 December at Luna Leederville + Luna on SX

*By Jean Hudson

Jean Hudson is our Shipping and Sailing Correspondent and also a regular feature writer, movie reviewer and photographer here on the Shipping News. You may also like to follow up her informative Places I Love stories, as well as other feature stories and Freo Today photographs, right here.

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