Year:  2023

Director:  Marc Fitoussi

Rated:  M

Release:  26 December 2023

Distributor: Palace

Running time: 111 minutes

Worth: $12.50
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth

Cast:
Olivia Côte, Laure Calamy, Kristin Scott Thomas, Alexandre Desrousseaux, Panos Koronis

Intro:
… an unpretentious entertainment and so long as you accept it on those terms, it will not disappoint.

It makes sense to release this film in the summer, as it is a light frothy piece that is as enjoyable, and disposable, as a novel that you might read on a beach holiday.

Writer/Director Marc Fitoussi showed that he can handle comedy in the delightful French TV series Call My Agent! The humour there was very much about the foibles and vanities of artists. This one also lampoons people who take themselves too seriously.

The lead is one such person. Blandine (Olivia Côte) has led a rather sheltered and self-denying life and, when her marriage comes to an end, her grown up son urges her to get out into the world. She has never been the adventurous type, but when she reconnects with her long-lost girlfriend Magalie (an over the top as usual perf from Laure Calamy), she is torn between pushing the boat out a little and running as fast as she can in the opposite direction. The two were besties as teenagers but they had a falling out. They are chalk and cheese.

Magalie is overconfident (at least on the surface) and generally a bit annoying. She lives for the moment, but there is a thoughtlessness to her too, and often this means that others end up picking up the tab, both literally and metaphorically. The pair go on a trip to Greece, which is full of misadventure and madcap moments. Some of this is charming, some of it less so.

Along the way, they bump into Bijou (Kristin Scott Thomas), an old friend of Magalie’s. Bijou is an ageing bohemian, also slightly relentless in her pursuit of hedonism. In this, she is much aided by her uxorious and slightly dim Greek husband Dimitri.

The film isn’t just a silly romp, though. At times, it crashes through to the more serious issues that midlife holds for all of them. The character arcs for all the leads are predictable. We know from the get-go that Magalie will have to stop pretending life is just a lark and Blandine will have to lighten up a bit. So, inevitably they meet somewhere in the middle and learn from each other. It is about the journey though and not the formula.

The Greek islands look absolutely beautiful of course and the film does have infectious depictions of the fun to be had there. It is an unpretentious entertainment and so long as you accept it on those terms, it will not disappoint.

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