An average movie

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it was directed by Laurent Cantet, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, it seems that Cantet tried this time to mix ‘Entre les murs’ with ‘Swimming Pool’ but even though this mix did have some potential, it never really worked though. Indeed, it did lean towards the hyperrealism displayed in ‘Entre les murs’ but, eventually, they didn’t spend enough time with any of the characters, even with Antoine and Olivia, to really get to know them. There was also the issue that I didn’t care much about any of the characters involved. I mean, there was definitely something intriguing about Antoine but, eventually, it turned out to be a bored and boring teenager and not much more than that. Concerning Marina Foïs, I remember her when she was part of ‘Les Robins des Bois’, a really funny comedic group on French TV at the end of the 90’s, and it was rather impressive to see her heading such a drama more than 20 years later. However, even though Foïs was not bad, to be honest, she never managed to make this writer really interesting though but she wasn’t helped by the fact that her character was barely developed whatsoever. Concerning the workshop itself, even if the concept was interesting, I wasn’t really convinced but it was mostly because they focused instead so much on the relationship between Olivia Dejazet and Antoine, a relationship which didn't lead to anything after all. Finally, regarding the comparison with ‘Swimming Pool’, it seemed that the whole thing could become something sleazy which was maybe a really misguided idea or maybe something that could make the whole thing much more spellbinding but, like pretty much everything else in this movie, it was never really explored. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, I have to admit that it was still a decent watch though and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.