There are a lot of films about adolescents out there, and a lot about adolescents discovering sex. But almost none of them are truthful. Charly, Isild Le Besco's remarkable second film as a director, is indeed honest—and understated and poetic. Its central character is inarticulate 14-year-old Nicolas, who stumbles through life in a listless haze until a chance meeting leaves him with a pair of objects that will prompt what may be the first inspired step of his life. The first is a postcard depicting an oceanfront scene in Belle-Ile, a remote Breton island off the French coast. It's tucked into a copy of Spring Awakening, the Frank Wedekind play that caused a scandal when it was published in 1891 for its frank depiction of that agonizing moment when adolescents first discover the disordering power of sex. Armed only with these, Nicolas sets off for Brittany-until he crosses paths with Charly (in an amazing performance by Julie-Marie Parmentier), a red-headed beauty who appears to ply her trade as a streetwalker in the same no-nonsense way she clears the breakfast dishes. She seems to find something endearing about Nicolas' mussed hair and dopey face, so she puts him up in the tiny trailer home that she maintains with such hilarious fussiness. As their unusual domestic arrangement evolves, each stumbles vulnerably into new emotional territory. Charly is ultimately a truly sweet, very honest, tremendously smart cinematic experience.

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