Even with a couple of plot lines that end up in blind alleys, "Summer Hours" is a poignant and touching look at the passage of time in a single family as it moves further apart, with jumps in time from sequence to sequence. It starts innocently enough with the 75th birthday celebration for Helene(Edith Scob) where she tells her oldest, Frederic(Charles Berling, who is excellent), an economist and writer, what she would like to happen to her house and belongings once she dies, forgetting what happened to King Lear when he tried something similar. It's actually more important than just a simple family matter, as she lives in a veritable museum that the Musee D'Orsay covets due to her uncle being a famous painter in his day. Frederic is stuck with the job because he is the only one still living in France while his siblings Adrienne(Juliette Binoche) and Jeremie(Jeremie Renier) live and work abroad. Frederic's intention is to keep the home where they all grew up in the family. To the movie's credit, they act like a real family as the siblings joke about old memories shared between them. All of whom are entering the stage in their lives where they are now the oldest in their families, to paraphrase "The Sopranos." In the end, "Summer Hours," in its own simple way, reminds us that all things come to an end, with all that is left is memories and a badly tended grave.