It has surely not gone unnoticed by the suits down in Hollywood (or has it?) that audiences, especially kids, are turning up in droves for the gentle supernatural fantasias of Studio Ghibli and the thoughtful visual touch of European fare like this, a French wonder that closes this year’s Reel 2 Real International Film Festival for Youth on a near perfect note. There are only three characters in Jean-François Laguionie’s hand-drawn animated feature: Louise, an elderly woman who finds herself stranded and alone in a Breton seaside town when she misses the last train of the summer season; a stray dog named Pepper; and a dead Second World War pilot suspended from a tree by his parachute. At first, Louise establishes a daily routine of showering on the beach and foraging for food. Eventually, we find ourselves seamlessly lowered into a timeless dimension where dogs and the dead can speak, and where an endearingly grouchy senior reckons with memory and loneliness. With an inner monologue provided by Dominique Frot, Louise by the Shore adopts a walking pace to turn this thinnest of material into a hypnagogic adventure. It might be low on 3-D fireballs and crossover-marketing opportunities, but the deep emotional satisfaction compensates.

Georgia Straight, April 2017