La famille Bélier

[Viard and Damiens] manage to project a lot of warmth despite the fact both have no spoken dialogue and their characters tend to be extremely direct.

The beauty of the otherwise formulaic La Famille Belier is the way this affable crowdpleaser manages to twist its overplayed setup.

Between La Famille Beliér's frequent juvenile jokes, redundant subplots and comically misguided performances, it seriously needed some work before going into production.

An impressively handled if conventional comedy-drama.

More interested in appeasing an older audience that already treats the condition as a wondrous curiosity, rather than moving them even an inch outside their comfort zone.

The heartening story of a young girl realising her singing talent is tempered by the borderline offensive portrayal of her deaf and mute farming parents ... as a pair of clowns that serve as the butt of most jokes.

The humour - there are quite a few good one-liners - and the warmth, the charm, the pathos, and the topic make it a pleasure.

The careful handling here ensures that we're never invited to laugh at the protagonists' supposed 'disability', making this more about everyone's struggle to be heard, whether they're deaf or not.

Take tissues and leave cynicism at home.

Good comedy rests on genuine dramatic foundations, a rule this film surely affirms

As well as ensuring that the film avoids the cloying sweetness of Hollywood's seasonal offering, Love the Coopers, the Beliers' idiosyncrasies strike a gently subversive note.