Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

Let's face it: the people in this film of vacationing Frenchmen are often unpleasant, sometimes downright loathsome. And yet, I had a good time watching, owing to Michel Blanc's skill at keeping all the balls in the air. I don't know how many speaking parts there are, maybe 20, but the energy never flags because of the marvelous actors. Karin Viard is my favorite actress for comedy; here she is wonderful as the frustrated wife of Podalydès trying to scrimp through a holiday that their finances really don't allow. The scene of Podalydès standing on the cliff, with Rampling quietly trying to buck him up, Ulliel crouched below, his tryst with Mélanie Laurent interrupted, and Viard gabbing away unwittingly with her friends until her husband jumps is a comic masterpiece.Carole Bouquet is another favorite of mine, since she stole Bunuel's last picture Cet obscur objet du désir over 30 years ago. She too is great in comedy--here she is saddled with the most jealous husband in recent film memory (go back to François Cluzet's harassing of Emmanuelle Béart in L'enfer). Blanc keeps yelling at her, accusing her of infidelities, and she grimly makes the best of it, helped by her new-found friends Rampling and Viard. As I said at the outset, sometimes the characters do unpleasant things, but you don't get the feeling that the deck is stacked against them.

Michel Blance, arguably best known outside France for his eponymous Monsiour Hire does an Agnes Jaoui here and takes a principal role as well as directing. It doesn't pretend to be anything but light escapist fare and as such it's reasonably successful. For some reason directors keep on casting that non-actress par excellence Charlotte Rampling who's ruined as many GOOD films as Peter Greenaway has made BAD ones - in each case every one they've made - and once again she lets the side down whilst in a wonderful touch of irony she shares a 'moment' with that other total loss Gaspard Ulliel (it was a nice if slightly bizarre touch that the Cesars awarded him a Best Newcomer gong last Saturday for A Very Long Engagement, despite his having been in this and Les Egares). Elsewhere there are some REAL talents on display not least Carole Bouquet, Karin Viard and Denis Podalydes. It's all done and dusted inside a week centered on a joint vacation in Le Touquet and Blanc keeps an extended family on its toes not to say mattresses. If you've got 90 minutes or so between planes and a portable DVD player this is as good as any to beguile the wait.

This is one of those superficial little French comedies that finesses its way through numerous sexual liaisons and adulteries with the tolerance only the French seem to have for such things. It's actually quite amusing in an if-I-didn't-have-to-break-a-leg-to-see-it kind of way and going to see an inoffensive film with subtitles makes you look sophisticated (though this may be reduced if you see it in a popcorn munching multiplex).

As with "Grosse Fatigue" the pair Michel Blanc / Carole Bouquet is at the center of the film. Lots of laughs. Subtle. Interesting characters even if sometimes it could be more subtle (eg : Michel Blanc's character is really extreme).Pour passer une bonne soiree.