The difficulties of family life is something all of us can relate to in different ways. The difference of opinion and conflicting priorities are made clear in the light of tribulation, as is explored in Michael Haneke's Happy End, along with themes of death, love and guilt.

The story opens with disaster: first, a young girl, Eve, is filming her mother while sharing messages of anger and frustration on social media.

The action then moves to Calais, where a huge disaster at a building site brings chaos to Eve's Aunt Anne (played masterfully by Isabelle Huppert) who owns the construction company and must now fix a monumental mess while caring for her father with dementia, Georges (Jean-Louis Trintignant) her alcoholic son Pierre, (Franz Rogowski) with little help from her brother Thomas (Matthieu Kassovitz) who has now taken Eve in while her mother is in hospital.

As with many of Haneke's films there is a strangely dark tone juxtaposed with lighter, comic moments. This by no means contains the same level of despair and darkness as his previous films such as The White Ribbon or Amour, but with moments of depression, depictions of childhood suicide and the overt political messages shown as Calais-based refugees are brought to a fancy, middle-class engagement party, this is not by any means a laugh-a-minute comedy.

But with that said, moments of almost farce and a thoroughly awkward dinner scene (as there always should be in family comedies or dramas) bring a lightened tone to the film. Haneke also satirises the strangeness of social media in a really funny way, which, with the growing relationship between the remarkably similar Eve and her grandfather Georges, opens up the film to allow more joy to pour through in times of strife and difficulty.

Isabelle Huppert is superb, as always, and Toby Jones features in a small way as her fiance, though more of Toby Jones is always to be desired no matter what film he appears in. Franz Rogowski's Pierre was thoroughly irritating, as was the intent I assume, while Matthieu Kassovitz's Pierre was incredibly slimy and altogether contemptible.

But the heart of the story is with Eve, wonderfully portrayed by young actress Fantine Harduin, as she struggles through being displaced and trying to navigate a tricky family environment with help from her ageing, yet sympathetic grandfather.

The film was truly a triumph and likely my favourite of Haneke's so far.