The intersecting lives of a group of ordinary people are presented to us through In Safe Hands (French: Pupille), a beautifully-poetic story that seeks to explore humanity in its various forms. A baby is born, and his young mother (Leïla Muse) is adamant that she doesn’t want to keep him, for a number of reasons. She decides that she is going to give him up for adoption, and over the course of the subsequent two months, a group of different individuals are woven into the life of this infant, all working to get him adopted. Amongst them are an empathetic social worker (Clotilde Mollet), who does her best to convince the child’s biological mother to think deeply and consider if this what she really wants to do, a group of workers at an adoption agency who are tasked with finding a good home for the child, including one who relates to the desperation more than most (Olivia Côte) and another (Miou-Miou) who is approaching retirement and at the end of her journey of helping unite prospective parents with their adoptive children, and a sympathetic child-welfare officer (Sandrine Kiberlain), who helps the baby find a temporary home with Jean (Gilles Lellouche), an old friend who she has always held in very high esteem, and who proves to be the perfect person to look after the ward until they can find a suitable adoptive home for him. This comes in the form of Alice (Élodie Bouchez), a young woman who has undergone a considerably difficult life and is seeking the joy of having a child since it was established that she wasn’t able to bear children on her own. The professional and private lives of these people all begin to overlap in their ardent attempts to give the newborn the best chance of having a good life, with their own inner quandaries working alongside their shared innovation to provide him with the best chance of leading a life every child, regardless of where they come from, wholeheartedly deserves.

In Safe Hands is a fascinating film for a number of reasons – it serves as one of the many tender human dramas produced regularly, but still stands apart as one of the fiercest explorations of the human condition of the past few years, one of the rare examples of a work of art being entirely propelled by nothing but empathy. Jeanne Herry put together a beautifully-complex story centred around a very simple premise that she explores with enormous sincerity and honesty, making In Safe Hands one of the more touching films one could hope to experience. The key to this film’s success lies in how incredibly straightforward it is, and how it intends to simply provide a glimpse into a process that is extremely common, yet the majority of us (even those involved in it) don’t always understand. The film affords us the chance to see the many machinations of a simple system, humanizing the process beyond that of simply the product of convoluted bureaucratic difficulty, rather portraying it as unflinchingly human. Like with anything, adoption is filled with challenges, which appeared to be the main thrust for Herry to make this film – and the effectiveness doesn’t only come in the stark, forthright honesty with which she executes the story, but also how she deftly avoids overly saccharine sentimentality, never resorting to either flippancy or unnecessary moralizing, keeping everything about this film at the fundamentally human level, and being unwavering in her dedication to compressing endless amounts of authentic honesty into this small but thoroughly meaningful that that doesn’t purport to offer anything other than the bare, genuine truth about something that many are not all that privy to understanding.

Any film that looks at deeply into the human condition as In Safe Hands is bound by its inherent tendency to be more character-driven than anything else, and as a result there are some very impressive performances scattered throughout the film. Featuring an incredibly strong ensemble, composed of a blend of veterans and newcomers, Herry assembles quite a cast and tasks them with bringing this beautiful story to life. Sandrine Kiberlain demonstrates her natural charm in the role of Karine, a woman holding herself together, not for the sake of her career, but rather the people she serves. Beautifully empathetic and raw, Kiberlain brings such wonderful humanity to a role that could have so easily been overwrought, especially in the moment towards the end of the film where she professes her love to a man who she knows can’t ever love her the way she expects. Everybody in this film has moments, with each actor playing a pivotal role and getting something meaningful to do – In Safe Hands calibrates to give them their own scenes that help them build as characters, and whether consistently strong in their smaller moments or when they are engaged in powerful interactions that explore the depths of their humanity, the cast of the film finds a certain complexity in very simple characters. So much can be said for each one of these individuals – Clotilde Mollet is extremely empathetic as the conflicted social worker who has dedicated her life to helping people who don’t always give her the respect she deserves, or Gilles Lellouche, whose character of Jean evokes interesting discussions on the intersections between gender roles and the position of caretakers, and Olivia Côte, who is simply heartbreaking as the adoption agent who is often the last hope for many people in having a child of their own.

However, as wonderful as the ensemble is, In Safe Hands is commanded by Élodie Bouchez, whose heartbreaking portrayal of a broken woman seeking to realize her dream of having a child being the foundation from which this film was built, and her journey is the one we are the most invested in. It takes quite a bit of work to be the standout in a cast like this, but Bouchez harbours a sincerity that binds the film together, and while she doesn’t have too many single moments of making her case as the best in the cast, she rather accomplishes this through a more quiet, reliable authenticity, which she conveys in the smaller scenes that count on her immense talents in playing as fragmented a woman as Alice, who longs for nothing more than the embrace of a child to call her own. There’s a subtletly to her performance that elevates the film and gives it so much more nuance than every other run-of-the-mill social drama. The film employs an ensemble cast, and they’re all spectacularly good, but it always returns to Bouchez, whose portrayal of Alice truly grounds the film and gives it the emotional resonance that it has often been praised for. The film begins and ends with her, and it’s impossible to not be moved by her performance, and considering how far this film goes in developing these different characters beyond mere archetype, it’s not surprising that In Safe Hands would truly benefit from such a wonderfully unique approach to the storytelling, channelling it through a group of individuals that are not bound by anything other than a shared humanity, brought to them by a filmmaker whose attention to detail supersedes any accusation of overwrought emotion.

In Safe Hands is a tremendously effective film, a moving portrait of a group of individuals working together to make sure a baby has a good future. Whether looking at the actual process of adoption, or the more intimate psychological aspects that many involved tend to experience during such challenging times, the film presents us with a  beautifully poignant story of humanity, told through an unfurnished, stark lens of unadulterated realism. A film like this doesn’t ever need to be bombastic or go too far in construction emotion, as everything it shows us is potent enough to make the audience feel even the most hard-hitting of sensations. Its a powerful story that finds joy in a heartbreaking situation, deriving striking commentary and even some subversive moments of light humour, as a means of contributing to the general atmosphere of hope that pervades every inch of this film. It traverses challenging territory, but never defaults to preaching or giving too much in terms of expositionary storytelling, rather choosing to embody the idea of simplicity being more effective than anything else. Poetic, beautifully-composed and striking in so many ways, Herry constructs a quietly heartbreaking exploration of life and its many challenges, using a central premise (one that isn’t unknown to filmmaking but isn’t the driving concept all that often) as a means of commenting on different aspects of humanity. Resilient, touching and truly exceptional in many ways, In Safe Hands is a wonderful drama that warms the heart and draws out the tears in incredibly special ways.