Taking a look at the results of the 2009 Academy Awards, and when one notices that three-quarters of the acting award winners are not from the United States, one has to assume that (brace yourselves) European actors and actresses might be better than the ones we have here. It's not that us Yanks aren't that good - I mean, we can get one of our actors to look like regular underprivileged people like anyone else - it's just that we don't seem to take quite the same bold challenges that other non-American performers seem to. When one looks at Kristin Scott Thomas, we see the attractive Briton who appeared in Four Weddings and a Funeral or and Random Hearts. But until watching I've Loved You So Long, not only did I not know she could speak French, but has been living in France long before her cinematic breakthrough. She uses her experience in France both with the people and the language to star in the film.

I've Loved You So Long is written by Philippe Claudel, who also uses this as his directorial debut. Thomas plays Juliette, who has just been released from prison and is being given a room at the home of her younger sister Lea (Elsa Zylberstein). Lea faces apprehension on this front by her husband Luc (Serge Hazanavicius), because as we eventually discover, Juliette spent 15 years in jail for murder. The "who" and "why" of the murder is borne out as the film goes on, but for the sake of revelation, should be discovered by the viewer. Upon reflection, the details of the murder are hardly necessary to make you find out why she did it anyway. They are, in fact, trivia that Juliette uses to eventually recount the murder, and they are tidbits that will forever stick in her mind about what she's done. No prison or state could even impose a punishment on her that hasn't already been doled out internally.

And this is key to being drawn to the film because Thomas sells it so very well. To put it another way, many male actors can show you the effects of being in prison for long periods of time. They show you how it affects them physically or emotionally. Instead of showing you anything about the prison, Claudel (using long shots of Thomas introspecting) illustrates a different kind of toll. Thomas, normally a glamorous looking person on and off screen, gets rid of that façade and shows you a woman who is haunted by her act. Juliette closed herself off from family and friends after being sent to prison, and she only reunited with Lea shortly before being released. So not only is she still trying to reconcile her internal thoughts, but she also is trying to find a place for herself in this new world. She deals with an awful lot of resistance in the process. I mentioned Luc's reluctance to have her in the house, much less watch over their daughters. A man is willing to offer her a job until she finds out what she'd done to go to jail. She attempts to work as a secretary in a hospital, but almost is fired from the job because she's "distant" to her co-workers. Many times she waits and even expects to be cast out of whatever place she's in because of what she'd done in the past. One sequence near the end of the film has Luc and Juliette in the kitchen and Luc goes upstairs to read a bedtime story to her older daughter. Luc quickly returns downstairs, and tells Juliette that her daughter asked that she read the story. Juliette cracks the smallest but most noticeable smile, not because Luc has been rebuffed, but because maybe she's finding acceptance as a normal person.

Oh yeah, did I mention that Kristin Scott Thomas speaks French in the film? Well she does it over the course of the film. Juliette is described as being "half English," but the only English spoken in the film is not from her, but from her (and Lea's) mother, who spends her days in a nursing home dealing with Alzheimer's. Her mother doesn't recognize her, and speaks to her as if she were a child. Juliette doesn't know how to react to this, and when another person enters the room, it's as if it never happened. Thomas speaks the role, and looks it as much. There is a touching moment about halfway through the film, when a colleague of Lea's named Michel (Laurent Grevill) warms to her, not because she is quiet and attractive. When he finds out what Juliette has actually done, Michel still accepts her, almost forgives her in a way. Yet with moments like these, Claudel still makes sure to keep Juliette and her eventual acquiescence to reveal the details of the murder just above the surface though; that reluctance to look back is what keeps her from going forward.

The 1.85:1 1080p widescreen presentation of I've Loved You So Long uses the AVC MPEG-4, as most Sony Blu-rays tend to do. Claudel keeps things basic in his debut, and you can really notice every wrinkle on Thomas' face and in her hands. You can spot fine detail in the foreground and in larger exteriors, things hold up well too (I liked seeing Juliette and Lea's family at the farmhouse of their friends, which helped show off the nature shots). Film grain was present and didn't present a distraction during viewing. The image does get soft from time to time halfway through the film, but otherwise this was a solid presentation.

French and English TrueHD 5.1 surround tracks grace I've Loved You So Long. There is 117 minutes of pondering, walking, smoking in coffee shops and swimming, and all of the scenes are dialogue driven. So while you're not going to get a stellar or demo-worthy sound experience, you still get strong-sounding dialogue in the center channel. Sometimes it occurs in the front right or left channel to reflect off camera characters. There's a scant directional effect or two, and the only real instance of surround usage I noticed was during the club scene where Lea and Juliette go dancing. Even then, it was subtle yet effective. For what it does, it pulls it off well.

Seven deleted scenes (5:09) with optional commentary is the only real noteworthy extra on the disc, but they either repeat scenes already in the film or are wholly unnecessary. The English TrueHD track is notable for having Thomas do her voice work on it, but honestly I would have liked to see (and hear) more about her allure to France, along with the production. Trailers for nine other Sony Classics films (including this one) are the other extra on this BD-Live enabled disc.

In I've Loved You So Long, we get the story of someone who is doing more to themselves than what the worst of society could ever expose her to. You can't help but want to find out more about what Juliette has done to commit her crime; when she reveals it, it's as if your opinion instantly changes. In Thomas, you witness one of the underappreciated female acting performances of 2008, but also one of the best.