The directorial debut of French screenwriter Danihle Thompson, LA B[CHE is a cool Christmas story with a comedic, realistic touch. Set in Paris, a middle-aged divorced woman, Yvette (Frangoise Fabian), rattled over the death of her lover, decides to spend Christmas with her three daughters, Sonia (Emmanuelle Biart), Milla (Charlotte Gainsbourg), and Louba (Sabine Azima), who are more accustomed to spending Christmas with their father. This decision creates tension and irritation for everybody in the family, making Christmas characteristically frenzied. From there, Thompson`s film becomes a series of colorful character studies, slowly revealing the unique personalities of each of the excellently portrayed characters. The three sisters have a close bond, though they all disagree with each other to certain degrees. The conservative, materialistic Sonia is having marital troubles and though she does not talk about her unhappiness, it s shows in her actions. Louba, no longer a young woman, who performs a song-and-dance routine at a Russian restaurant, is pregnant by her married lover. And Milla, a fiercely independent workaholic, thinks that she has found true love, and then realizes that the man she has met is actually her brother. A magical, difficult, carefully woven story, LA B[CHE takes the falseness out of Christmas spirit, and replaces it with the magic of real life.