Japanese master Kore-eda Hirokazu delivers one of his most satisfying efforts to date with his tender look at a disintegrating family and what truly remains of the love that was once there in abundance.

Handsome veteran Abe Hiroshi plays an aging novelist who hasn’t followed up on early success. His immaturity has cost him work and family, but he’s still trying to get back in the good graces of his fed-up ex-wife and their easygoing little boy. The guy is surprisingly inarticulate for a writer (perhaps a script deficiency), and he pretty much does everything wrong. But he does listen to his earthy mother, who does her best—in Ozu-like fashion—to keep conflicting sides in harmony. It’s really the director’s eye for ordinary human contact that stays with you, but he also manages to hit some extra-sweet notes about this little clan in particular.