When you have a good job, you dream big; you want a bigger house with more space, a soccer table for your kids, a piano for their music lessons, and many more things. You ignore the bills that come to you every month, and a loan you think can easily afford. But what if one day you wake up and find yourself out of job? Your income is suddenly zero, but the bills are still coming and waiting to be paid? And what about the promise you made to your kids about moving to a bigger house where they can fulfill their childish dreams and do what they want?
Juliette and Charles Lesage live a luxurious life with their two adorable children. He works as a financier in a local branch, while she is a piano teacher. With both of them working, this allows them to get a loan and buy their dream house. Just when they are about to settle down and prepare to live a better life, Charles finds out he is fired; the bank threatens to repossess the house; they still need to pay their rent; bills are still coming in; and the children are questioning why, they all of a sudden, can’t move to the new house? On top of all these problems, Juliette`s bag is snatched by Manu, a street thief. But, instead of giving him up to the police, Juliette asks him to help her rob the bank…
It is always hard to make a social drama where the viewer can actually understand the victim and justify their next move for survival. The French drama, NOW OR NEVER describes the importance of having a job in our society; a society that does not care how much you actually need the job, or how much you owe to the bank, or your monthly rent, or other bills – this is not their problem… and worse, when you end up living under a bridge, they will have nothing to do with you.. Juliette, played by Leïla Bekhti is impressively conveying what it means for one family to keep the promises they made to their children. And she also conveys well the fear she has of serving ten years of her life in prison for keeping her promises to the people she cares about most…
NOW OR NEVER is a powerful, touching, and nail-biting drama about the time you can`t lose, and the moments you have no right to waste. It shows the painful moments when one family`s golden life crashes in a matter of minutes, when one of them becomes unemployed. And when Juliette meets Manu (Nicolas Duvauchelle), she meets her soulmate; the one who fails to keep his promise to his own daughter. And this is why after seeing this film you will come to realize – we all should be very careful when we dream beyond our means. Because what we have today may disappear tomorrow… exactly same way as it has happened with the Lesage family.