An acutely observed song of sorrow that shares much with “Ordinary People” (including the name of a protagonist), “Louder Than Bombs” studies a family in transition after the death of a loved one. Isabelle Huppert plays a Nyack, NY, war photographer whose death in a car wreck several years ago was a suicide, a fact known to her widower (Gabriel Byrne), her older son (Jesse Eisenberg) and a colleague (David Strathairn) but not to her younger boy, Conrad (film newcomer Devin Druid). Each survivor grieves in strange, inappropriate ways, all of them denying how loss has shaken their souls. Directed with great sensitivity by Norway’s Joachim Trier, the film is superbly, subtly acted. Rejecting any kind of resolution or catharsis, though, it’s so self-controlled that it is afraid to take a dramatic leap — so it doesn’t lead anywhere in particular, even if the melancholy is beautifully textured.
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