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Sick Product of a Sick System

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A Disappointing Continuation

This movie is a very mixed bag of positives and negatives.On the negative side: it is very formulaic. A husband wants to win back his wife's love, so he does foolish things, such a pretending to have a mistress to make her jealous. Everything backfires and, to take revenge, she takes a lover of sorts. Those are all clichés, and have nothing new to offer.On the positive side: Christian Clavier and Nathalie Baye - and Patrick Chesnais - are all in top form, to the extent that one can be with very limited material. They create real, interesting, likable characters out of their roles.So: the movie is worth watching for the acting by the leads. Just try to ignore the plot.

It's a movie mainly about rich people and their problems and i don't give a s..t, especially if it's french bourgeoisie in Paris. With all their money, their cars, their shopping and fine clothing, their maid, their driver, they don't have any dust of intelligence or wisdom and they are poor in communicating and sharing together. If their only goals in life are money and sex, well, they don't know what life is about. In addition, this movie isn't funny because it tries to make laugh by taking shoots at the daily life of common people, that's to say us! Geraldine is the only welcoming light in this crap and she is clever enough to run away from it.

Frankly, the trailers for this film looked a lot more promising than what the finished product turned out to be. We are presented with what appears to be the way bored people with money do with their meaningless lives. Now, we are not opposed that Odile, a woman in a marriage that has seen better days, spends her time in the pricey Parisian boutiques frequented by women like her. After all, if she gets her kicks out of doing that, let her have her fun.In the meantime, her husband Jean-Pierre is at his wits ends trying to win the affection of her wife. Instead of dealing directly with the problem, he follows his chauffeur Richard's advice seizing Odile's credit cards. If he thinks he will get away with that, he's got another thing coming to him. Richard, the driver, it turns out, has the same problems his boss has, without the money element.Alexandra Leclere, the writer/director of this French farce, touches on themes that are deeper than what one sees on the screen. Consumerism, machismo, and non-communication between couples that have been married for a while, are some of the themes behind this comedy.The exceptional cast gathered for the picture deserved better material than what they were given. The marvelous Natalie Baye does all she can with Odile. Christian Claver, who plays Jean-Pierre, makes a good impression. Gerard Lanvin's Richard is instrumental in giving his boss the solution for all his problems. Geraldine Pailhas appears as the wife of Richard, a lady with her own problems in a marriage that is also having difficulties.There are a few laughs, but in the end the film doesn't completely satisfy. One wishes Ms. Leclere better luck next time.

Alexandra Leclere is clearly going to become yet another French female director to reckon with; she followed the Short Bouche a bouche with the full-length Les Soeurs fachees for which she secured the services of Isabelle Huppert, Catherine Frot and Francois Berleand and did them all proud with a fine light comedy. For her second full-length entry she has cast Nathalie Baye and Christian Clavier - who knows a thing or two about writing and directing himself if anyone asks you - as an affluent husband and wife, complemented by Gerard Lanvin and Geraldine Pailhas as their working-class - Lanvin is Clavier's chauffeur, Pailhas a shop assistant - counterparts. It turns out that both husbands have the same problem; neither is getting any. Clavier's immediate solution is to withdraw Baye's Gold Credit Card but all that buys him is a reluctant statue. The two men bond after a fashion and Clavier moves into the front seat, takes Lanvin to five-star restaurants for lunch and invites the chauffeur and his wife to dinner without informing Baye. There's a lot of product placement going on which helps enhance the values that Baye lives by (sorry about that); Ferragamo and Dior are both shown via their bags and also the establishments whilst Pailhas is a salesperson at Galleries Lafeyette - when Baye is browsing there Pailhas accosts her and they play a long scene outside a sign saying Galleries Lafzyette Staff Entrance whilst for good measure Pailhas has the store's logo on her uniform. Another fine actor, Patrick Chesnais also turns up around the middle as 'other man' material for Baye and it all ends happily as films of this sort should do. A worthy successor to Les Soeurs fachees and highly recommend.