At first you might feel it is ordinary, but eventually you will being liking it.
I wanted to watch this film because this was the highest grossing French film of all time. It is directed by Dany Boon who has also acted in the film and have handled both the department brilliantly. I loved the way he shoots scenes and makes ordinary scenes interesting. There is a scene where Philippe, the protagonist, who is trying to get transferred to a Mediterranean city by seaside forced by his wife tries to pretend that he is handicapped but is caught while his interview he gets up in the act forgetting he was pretending to be a handicap. It was a very funny scene and I saw it twice and both times it made me laugh.Finally, Philippe reaches Brugues, place in Northern France which is everything he didn't desire for. It is a small city with orthodox traditions where everyone knows everyone else. Philippe reaches there and faces bad experiences but son bad experiences turn into good ones and he starts to enjoy it. When he goes back to his wife, she loves him more now thinking he may have suffered a lot in that city so to get more pampering from his wife, he lies to her that he is not enjoying his time there.
Philipe makes great friends there, especially with the postman Antoine who not only becomes his best friend but also a companion with whom he can do literally anything.
The movie is about these two guys and their friendship and along with the line it is about how French people distinguish themselves as posh and backwards based on regions and the ethnicity of people. The director has dedicated the movie to his mother who he says was from North France and inspired the story behind the film.
The film is a very simple rendition of a story that could have gone more complex if the director didn't keep himself in control. I think the film is great in the sense that neither the writer, director or any of the actors ever got over-ambitious and tried to do more than required. I am pretty sure the entire crew would have been surprised by the success this film might have got. This is the simplest film I have seen and there are characters arcs of the characters. Whatever character is, he remains.
At times you feel that you have seen films like this before but I believe that it is not the story but the treatment by Boon that makes this film special and especially the acting of Kad Merad who perfectly plays Philippe. Kad has best comic timing I have ever seen in any actor. He can make you laugh without doing caricaturish stuff on the screen. Even his expressionless face is so expressive that it makes you laugh.
One of the best films I have seen but not a great film. Even wondered how it earned so much money. I think it was a very feel-good film and films like these bring a smile on the face of people and I think that's why they watched it in big numbers.
score 8/10
ShitizSays 7 January 2019
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw4566707/35816
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