Time to Leave

Romain, a thirty-one-year-old fashion photographer, is told he has three months. Because the odds of survival are so low he refuses treatment and tells almost nobody. He pushes his partner Sasha away on purpose, and the only person he talks to is his grandmother Laura. François Ozon places this among his films about mourning, treating death not as an event but as the way a person empties out their surroundings. Melvil Poupaud plays Romain and Jeanne Moreau plays Laura. Poupaud won Best Actor at the 2005 Valladolid International Film Festival, where Ozon took the Silver Spike. Rotten Tomatoes sits at 75 percent, with a consensus that it offers a reflective look at our own mortality without relying on predictable emotional beats, and Metacritic at 67 from 21 reviews. The Seattle Times called it a quiet and poignant look at a life slipping away, seen through a character who is not always likeable and remains entirely real. Who it is for: viewers who want death handled with silence and distance. Who it is not for: anyone expecting reconciliation. Romain makes peace with nobody, and the film does not absolve him for it.