“The year’s best movie (so far).”

That’s what J.R. Jones of the Chicago Reader calls Olivier Assayas’s Summer Hours, a haunting and effective drama about three adult siblings who have to deal with their mother’s estate after she passes away; it plays in Chicago twice this week as part of the European Union Film Festival.

I am inclined to agree with Jones’s assessment, though I saw the film last year at the local film festival. I have been waiting for it to receive a commercial release ever since; in the meantime, I wrote a brief bit about it here.

And for what it’s worth, I must say I have been keen to see the film again these past few weeks, since my own grandmother — pretty much the only grandparent I ever had — passed away two weeks ago. The various services and family gatherings that took place this past week are the main reason I haven’t done any blogging lately, though I hope to get back up to speed in the near future.

For what it’s worth, the trailer below doesn’t begin to do the film justice, but a few clips bring back just enough of the movie to bring a tear to my eye.

Click here if the video file above doesn’t play properly.