Pas si grave
2003 Comedy / Drama
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Credits
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Summary
Léo, Max and Charlie are three very different young men who were adopted at the
age of five by Pablo, a Spanish immigrant. Pablo, an exile living in Belgium, hasn’t
set foot in his country since the time of the Civil War, but persuades his three adopted
sons to go there to recover a cherished statue. Far from being a wild goose chase,
the three brothers have quite an adventure, thanks to an attractive surgeon Angela and
a captain in the Guardia Civil.
Review
After his earlier dark psychological dramas -
Tiré à part (1996) and
Une affaire de goût (2000) – the journalist-turned-director
Bernard Rapp makes a radical, and surprising, change of tack for his third film, Pas si
grave. Superficially, the film evokes the lightness and sunny aspect of Rapp’s younger
contemporaries (Cédric Klapisch springs to mind). Indeed, the film has one
or two strong selling points – some pleasing comedy, some nice location photography and
excellent contributions from the three male leads (Sami Bouajila, Romain Duris and Jean-Michel
Portal). Alas, the film’s charms are pretty well skin-deep – there isn’t a great
deal of depth to the characterisation and the direction, like the script, feels lazy,
half-hearted and aimless. Whilst it is not as inspired and as satisfying as Rapp’s
other three cinematic offerings, Pas si grave is still worth watching, as a light-hearted,
gentle reflection on life and personal identity.
© James Travers 2007 Write a review for this film... |
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