Julie Delpy seems to always be the life force for any film that she stars in. In Richard Linklater’s romantic "Before" trilogy, her Céline was the sun; in her own projects as a writer/director/actor, she's embodied the slight screwball that can emerge from real-life situations, whether they involve electric relationships (“2 Days in Paris,” "2 Days in New York") or romps about a jealous adult son's sabotage (“Lolo”). And because it’s Delpy determining the energy, the movies are grounded in their own unique space, somewhere between "only in the movies" and "just like real life."
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In “My Zoe,” her latest film as a writer/director/actor, Delpy's character Isabelle is the mourning blue of its melancholic story, which presents a mother and ex-wife grieving over her daughter Zoe (Sophia Ally) falling into a coma, while clashing with her ex-husband James (Richard Armitage), and opting for a futuristic way out of her pain. Delpy handles this in such a raw, aching, trusting fashion. It is stunning then, to see Delpy claim in the film's press notes that it's not a personal story, so much as inspired by a fear of losing her own son. This is more about Delpy's imagination about such a horror, and yet it has the compelling stream of consciousness of watching someone write a journal entry. It's a strong testament to her emotional boldness as a storyteller, in front of and behind the camera.