The Worst Film Ever

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Excellent but underrated film

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

This first feature of Étienne Chatilliez is litterally cult in France. Like Les bronzés everybody knows the lines and some are really cult. These two families on the opposite side of the social ladder represent a France that still exist today.

This movie will warm part of your black heart. We get to see the set up for the reason that two families, which in reality exist in two worlds which never interact, are forced into contact. When the "good" family finds out about their switched child, they seek to recover the child from the "bad" family and raise it in their home along with their other children, natural and switched. Their life quickly deteriorates with numerous misfortunes and confrontations. Towards the end, the "good" mother is seen belting down scotch in the kitchen, her older son comforts her with the tag line "Mom,life is not a river quietly flowing." Many funny scenes and embarrassing situations. If you liked The tall blond many with one black shoe, give this little movie an opportunity.

The subject of two children being switched at birth could have easily been the canvas for a melodramatic movie. Instead of that, this work presents a playfull comedy where the clichés of society classes are scrutinized. The laughs are in the details, some dialogs are just memorable. And if the ending might seem a little unsettled, it has the intelligence of leaving questions and conclusions to the spectator about wealth and happiness.

True, this is not the best movie ever made. It is, however, extremely funny. One cannot truly realize why this is such a ridiculous movie until they know the the french culture. It is not a study in the class differences, it is to exaggerate the extreme opposite ends of the spectrum. The rich family is so stable it is almost hokey, and the poor family is so dysfunctional that they are almost stable. All of the comments about life are only to exaggerate the situation. I particularly love the scene in the church with the musical, it just goes to show how silly things can be. I don't watch this movie over and over for the plot, I watch it because every time you see it you notice something now that is characteristically French. Personally, I think it is great.