Cause toujours! (2004)
Directed by Jeanne Labrune

Film Review

Intended as the closing instalment in a loose trilogy of films (the first two being Ça ira mieux demain (2000) and C'est le bouquet! (2002)) Cause toujours! is one of those gentle comedies which starts out well but just fails to go anywhere and ends up leaving you feeling massively shortchanged. It is as if writer-director Jeanne Labrune embarked on the project without a clear idea as to where the story is heading, who the characters are supposed to be, or indeed what kind of film it is.  Consequently, the film feels patchy and aimless, a cinematic potpourri looking desperately for a reason to be.

It doesn't help that the muddled narrative is interspersed with numerous thriller references, but this is just one failing among many. A worse sin is that the humour is so unsubtle that most of the jokes just seem to die from embarrassment before they have had chance to register with the spectator. The film does at least boast a respectable cast (any film offering the combined talents of Victoria Abril and Jean-Pierre Darroussin is definitely worth checking out) but their admirable efforts to salvage the film are pretty well sunk by a script that badly needed three or four more redrafts and some mise-en-scène that looks positively shoddy. This has to be Labrune's weakest film yet. Thankfully, her next comedy Sans queue ni tête (2010), was a significant improvement.

Film Synopsis

As Jacinthe goes to war with a plague of insects that have invaded her apartment, her husband Bruno takes the insects' side and hinders her campaign of extermination.  Meanwhile, her best friend Léa becomes fascinated by a dumb middle-aged man who works in a minimart.  Léa is on her way to the countryside for a weekend break with her friends when she notices the strange man and follows him to his home.  Jacinthe becomes concerned when Léa fails to show up as agreed. Fearing the worst, she enlists the help of her friends Judith and Laurent to help look for her.  What they discover proves to be quite a shock...