A good movie

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but, since it was directed by Jean Becker and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, it had been ages since I saw a movie directed by Becker, probably a few decades, but I thought that this movie was actually pretty solid after all. Basically, it was some kind of French version of ‘American Beauty’ but even bleaker, without the surreal bits and focusing only on this guy in his forties having seemingly some major midlife crisis. ‘American Beauty’ is one of my all-time favorite movies so I have apparently a weak spot for such stories. Sure, this French movie was definitely not a masterpiece, the scope was probably too small for that but I thought the subject was well handled here. On top of that, I was quite impressed by Albert Dupontel who was pretty much pitch-perfect here. I have to admit that I’m not really familiar with Dupontel’s work (after 30 years, I still haven’t watched ‘Bernie’ which is a major cult-classic in France) but he was always compelling here but felt also really genuine. It is actually funny that, when he made this movie, he was actually younger than me when I feel at least 10 years younger than his character. Concerning Marie-Josée Croze, well, sure, she was really lovely but, to be honest, I thought she was actually rather weak here. Especially next to Dupontel who seemed to actually become his character, it felt so obvious that she was actually reading some lines, it was rather painful to watch. Concerning the midlife crisis thing as it was displayed in this movie, I’m actually a lone wolf myself with a very limited social life and this movie and especially the main character displayed why I don’t think I’m missing much after all. It’s not that I hate people but most social interactions are so shallow, you always have to put on a mask and play an act. To be honest, it all seems to be a rather annoying waste of time and energy. Obviously, the ending did contradict all that and I did have some mixed feelings with this twist ending. Basically, the guy wasn’t having a midlife crisis, he was actually dying of cancer which also explained why he went to see his father when they barely had any contact during the previous 30 years. This turn of event did bother me because I did like the idea of this dude suddenly telling everybody ‘F*ck you!’ which was so refreshing. On the other hand, like all his relatives, I was wondering how he suddenly became this way since he was apparently acting really out of character and the terminal cancer diagnosis did actually provide a solid explanation. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was nothing really groundbreaking, it was a decent watch and I think it is worth a look.