My pick for best film of the year may very well come down to the three major three-hour international titles I’ve seen within the past month. Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s All of a Sudden is the newest to me of these three, but by no means does it not stick to my heart as much as Possible Love and La Bola Negra. Similarly to my experience of Possible Love, I do wonder if part of my enjoyment was in discovering this director’s particular style and rhythms, as I still have not caught up with Hamaguchi’s previous awards-season hit, Drive My Car. Like La Bola Negra, Sudden takes its time to fully click into place emotionally, but if one allows it to exist at its particular speed, I feel like it’d be impossible to resist.
This cross-cultural masterpiece stars Virginie Efira as Marie-Lou and Tao Okamoto as Mari. French Marie-Lou lives in Paris and is the director of a large nursing home, which feels like a refuge nestled deep within the city (this notion becomes relevant later). Mari is a Japanese stage director staging one of her most popular plays in Paris around the same time that Marie-Lou is trying to implement a system of humane care called “Humanitude” (also relevant later). When Marie-Lou happens upon a lost Tomoki (Kodai Kurosaki), the non-speaking autistic grandson of Gorō (Kyōzō Nagatsuka), Mari’s actor in her one-man show, she patiently waits with Tomoki until Mari and Gorō are called by the GPS tracker Tomoki carries with him. From there, the two women form a friendship which extends far beyond Marie-Lou simply coming to see the play.
At first, the setup to get the two main characters to meet struck me as a little farfetched, but then the way this movie handles their intellectual conversations and overall thoughtfulness started to win me over. Considering the film’s luxurious pacing, I had time to reminisce about the happenstance ways I’ve met some of my closest friends, and then Mari and Marie-Lou’s meeting didn’t seem so sudden (no pun intended). Also, before they even meet, Marie-Lou’s struggles in her workplace are genuinely gripping. You see what Marie-Lou is trying to do, but you don’t know exactly why (until later). Conversely, you understand some of her staff members’ disgruntled perspectives to do with the amount of time the new techniques take to fully implement. So nuanced are these early scenes that you know as a viewer you’re in great hands no matter where the movie goes. And boy, does it go places.
You’ve probably noticed how much I’ve used the word “later” in this review. That’s because there’s so truly much which is being naturally set up early on which becomes more relevant and emotionally powerful in the film’s final hour. Setups and payoffs aren’t the only things Hamaguchi has up his sleeve, however. He allows these characters to speak — really speak — like everyday people with a mixture of intelligence, wit, and heart. There is not an ounce of this friendship which feels false, and once the film devastates with its emotional climax, you may come to realize how much you don’t want to leave the presence of these people, despite the film’s runtime. Perhaps the overall journey of the film on paper may feel minor when compared to some of the other epics this year, but it is easily one of the most emotionally resounding. All of a Sudden is a deeply human, deeply humane work of pure grace. | George Napper
All of a Sudden was featured at the 2026 St. Louis International Film Festival, and is in French and Japanese with English subtitles. Further information about the Festival, which runs Nov. 5-15, is available on the festival website.
