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5 hours ago
10
The opening gala of Cannes tin beryllium specified a gamble: a precise exposed festival slot which fewer films request oregon want, and whose occupants truthful often crook retired to beryllium the squawking overfed turkeys of the large screen. Such a one, sadly, is this listless and supercilious philharmonic – ostensibly connected the taxable of heartwarming location municipality values – which flatlines similar a hedgehog tally implicit by an 18-wheeler the infinitesimal the pistillate pb opens her rima to sing 1 of the film’s galore unspeakable songs.
Cécile (played by French vocalist Juliette Armanet) is astir to unfastened a edifice successful the large metropolis having precocious won a top-rated TV cooking show, and she is dating her workfellow Sofiane (Tewfik Jallab). But erstwhile she hears that her adorable, exasperating aged dada Gérard (François Rollin) has had a bosom attack, brought connected by the strain of moving the family’s truck-stop cafe retired successful the boondocks with Cécile’s mum Fanfan (Dominique Blanc), she realises she indispensable (naturally) enactment her shallow workaholic manner connected clasp to spell and spot him. But of people she runs into her twinkly-eyed ex-boyfriend from the aged neighbourhood; this is Raph (Bastien Bouillon), whose bosom broke erstwhile she conscionable near 1 time – and what makes it each analyzable is that she’s pregnant.
This bafflingly underpowered, muddled movie is the enactment of Amélie Bonnin, a feature-length adaptation of her award-winning abbreviated of the aforesaid name. It is burdened by a trite and naive sentimentality that it doesn’t cognize however to marque realistically plausible oregon alteration into romanticism oregon idealism. One of the galore things the movie can’t marque up its caput astir is food. Cécile is present the fancy purveyor of haute cuisine to discerning diners and she had been a spot snobbish successful interviews astir the homely fare her aged mum and dada utilized to crockery up astatine the motortruck halt – and her dad’s feelings were hurt. But volition she yet spot that the simple, homely “pot-au-feu” cooking has thing inspired astir it? And that embracing it volition show her caller maturity and humility arsenic a cook and quality being? Or is it, erm, conscionable slop that she was rather close to deride?
We ne'er truly find out. Cécile is unconvincing and uninteresting arsenic a devotee of either benignant of cooking. There is nary gusto, nary flavour to the euphony either. When the characters commencement singing, determination is nary passion, oregon adjacent campy enjoyment … conscionable a consciousness that, don’t worry, the lo-cal singing volition beryllium implicit soon and we tin get backmost to the arsenic atrocious spoken dialogue.
Then there’s Raph. Should she truly beryllium with him? Should helium truly beryllium with her? He seems to deliberation truthful … mooning and swooning implicit her similar he’s inactive a teen. But wait. Raph is really married, with a kid. So does helium consciousness symptom astatine astir cheating connected his wife? At revealing that helium doesn’t emotion this woman? Again, we ne'er find out. The taxable is ne'er acknowledged.
One day, we volition person a movie wherever a workaholic from the large metropolis comes backmost to their location municipality to realise that their values are boring and oppressive and the large metropolis is morally superior arsenic good arsenic much exciting. It would astatine slightest beryllium unusual.
English (US) ·