s in any number of other movies, the recently dead start returning to life, all over the
world. But they are not rotting, cannibalistic zombies. They are well-dressed, presentable and
polite; they don't speak much, and they show little emotional affect, but they don't seem to mean anybody any harm. The only problem is: With millions considered dead for years now wandering down Main Street, with no obvious destination, just what do we do with them?
The elderly mayor of one French town (Garrivier), a widower himself, adopts the only possible strategy: Treat 'em like any other refugees. Give them cots in big cavernous warehouses, clothe them, try to track down their loved ones and, whenever possible, reintroduce them to their former lives. That includes giving back their old jobs, even if those positions have been filled by others. He is soon happily reconciled with his dead wife Martha (Catherine Samie), though she manages little in the way of conversation and shows a disconcerting tendency to wander off in the middle of conversations.
Meanwhile, the beautiful young Rachel (Pailhas) resists seeking out her deceased husband, Mathieu (Zaccai), but invites him home when he tracks her down on the street. And bereaved parents Isham (Djemel Barek) and Veronique (Marie Matheron) take home their departed little boy, Sylvain (Delas), who is cute enough but seems barely aware of their presence.
As the living realize that their loved ones are not all they used to be, the dead start having secret meetings late at night. ...
Night of the poignant dead
They Came Back is being marketed as an upscale zombie film, a classification certain to disappoint ravenous fans who will sit through the sad, deliberately paced drama only because they're waiting for an explosive climax. The filmmakers provide just the barest taste of that, as if to placate those who walk into this film expecting Gallic Romero. But, in truth, physical scares are not on this film's agenda. It's a more melancholy creepiness, driven by pangs of grief and the dawning awareness among everybody still breathing that the dead are not so much sharing in the joy of reconciliation as they are echoing the sentiments of those who've welcomed them back.
There is a real quiet horror in the plight of loving dad Isham, who takes his son to the park and encourages him to run and play with the other kids, and is so overjoyed to have his family back together that he fails to notice his son's motionless, disinterested presence in the middle of a game of tag. It's rendered even worse by how quickly his wife, Veronique, who was at first just as teary at this seeming miracle, cools to the boy, recognizing what her husband does not: that Sylvain wants nothing to do with them, and is interested only in joining his fellow dead. Actors Barek and Matheron make this cruelly dysfunctional situation heartbreaking, never more so than in their final scene together. The emotional agony on screen is palpable.
The love story between Rachel and the husband whose death she had accepted, and who she only reluctantly allows back into her life, is just as disturbing. She projects her feelings onto him and fails to see that their reunion is passionless. There's little point in even trying, except that he does have something to say to her. There's a very real chemistry between Pailhas and Zaccai, even if story necessity dictates that it flows in only one direction.
The result is a tale disturbing, heartbreaking, resonant and, perhaps, just a little too quiet for its own good; it would have been a lot better if it had included at least one story about a survivor confronted by a relative he would have preferred dead. But it's definitely one of the better fantasies of the year.
