I Love You Too Much

Drake’s memorable, heartfelt debut captures the intensity and angst of a teenaged boy’s coming of age in Paris, where the façade of perfection and beauty often hides decay and degradation. Paul divides his time between two narcissistic parents who split when he was 11. His mother, obsessed with keeping her good looks, has just given birth to a baby girl whose father, the freeloading Gabriel, is a guitar player in some nominal band. Paul’s workaholic father, an exercise devotee, is busy training for a triathlon. No one except Cindy, his mother’s maid, has time for Paul. During one of his mother’s countless spa visits, Paul chances upon a girl from his high school whose parents are also at the spa, and a tentative relationship begins. Scarlett, a feisty “bad girl” who lives for adventure, flaunts her budding sexuality and brings Paul out of his shell. Their liaison grows into something more meaningful. But then Paul witnesses two disturbing scenes—one at his father’s, another at his mother’s—that upend his life. How he survives his loss of innocence is both poignant and uplifting. (Jan.)