“The Midwife is powered by a pair of outstanding performances from two of France’s finest actresses, Catherine Frot and Catherine Deneuve, appearing together in an arthouse face-off. Frot is the midwife of the title, Claire, who’s exactly the person you’d want to deliver your baby – she’s calm, experienced and a well of empathy, although outside work she’s a little shut off emotionally. Deneuve is her ex-stepmother Béatrice, who crashes backs into Claire’s life 30 years after she walked out on her dad. An old lush, Béatrice gambles for a living, wears leopard print, drinks a glass of red with her omelette at breakfast and has a supply of one-liners up her sleeve. But she’s also refreshingly down-to-earth, offhandedly telling Claire to put her in a bin liner and chuck her in the Seine after she’s gone.
“Its depth and texture make this a moving film about families, time passing and shared history – and the handful of scenes in the maternity unit where Claire works, five or six little miracles of birth, somehow add to its sense of a life as mysterious and precious.” - Time Out