Jeanne Herry’s In Safe Hands (2018) is a delicate yet incisive exploration of the French adoption system, weaving a narrative that balances bureaucratic precision with raw human emotion. The film’s strength lies in its choral structure, deftly threading together the perspectives of a newborn’s birth mother, foster carers, social workers, and a prospective adoptive mother, Alice (Élodie Bouchez). Herry’s direction is a masterclass in restraint, allowing the quiet intensity of ordinary lives to speak louder than melodrama. She avoids sensationalism, instead crafting a narrative that feels like a documentary in its authenticity but pulses with the heart of a drama. The screenplay, penned by Herry, is meticulously structured, presenting the adoption process as a labyrinth of empathy and procedure. It sidesteps didacticism, letting the audience infer the weight of each decision through subtle character interactions rather than expository dialogue. However, the script occasionally leans too heavily on saccharine moments, particularly in the final act, where a tidy resolution risks undermining the complexity of the preceding journey.

The acting ensemble is the film’s soul. Élodie Bouchez delivers a performance of shattering vulnerability as Alice, her restrained expressions conveying a decade-long ache for motherhood. Gilles Lellouche, as the foster father Jean, surprises with a tender, understated portrayal that subverts his typical machismo roles. Sandrine Kiberlain’s social worker, Karine, is both empathetic and pragmatic, embodying the system’s human face. Their performances are elevated by Sofian El Fani’s cinematography, which uses warm, widescreen compositions to isolate characters against soft backdrops, visually echoing their emotional solitude. The Finistère locations Brest’s neonatal unit and Locmaria-Plouzané’s quiet streets lend a grounded, almost tactile realism, rooting the story in a specific cultural and geographic context. Pascal Sangla’s spare score complements this, resisting over-sentimentality until the closing moments, where it teeters on excessive sweetness.

Yet, the film’s slow pace and occasional contrivances moments of artistic license feel forced rather than organic may test some viewers’ patience. These flaws, though, do not overshadow its profound humanity. In Safe Hands is a testament to the invisible labor of care, illuminating the delicate interplay between institutional duty and personal longing. It invites reflection on what it means to belong, not through grand gestures but through the quiet courage of those who navigate life’s most fragile transitions.[](https://cineuropa.org/en/newsdetail/364194/)[](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/safe-hands-pupille-review-1167386/)[](https://plymouthartscinema.org/film-review-in-safe-hands/)