Belles familles (2015)
Directed by Jean-Paul Rappeneau

Film Review

Twelve years after his last film, Bon voyage (2003), director Jean-Paul Rappeneau returns with an entry in a completely different register - a ditsy melange of family comedy-drama and rom-com that can't help looking like a manically overdone adaptation of a Georges Feydeau farce by Arnaud Desplechin.  The characters' resemblance to Desplechin types is helped by the fact that one of them is played by Desplechin regular Mathieu Amalric, but rather than attempt a thoughtful Desplechinesque examination of family relationships and the male menopause Rappeneau is content to turn the handle and churn out what is mostly a routine comedy that might well have been concocted by a computer drawing off a substantial database of clichés and stock situations.  La Belles familles, the director's eighth film in fifty years, marks a return to the uninhibited comedies of his dim and distant past, but whereas Rappeneau's early comedies Les Mariés de l'an II (1971) and Le Sauvage (1975), had a spark of originality amidst all the chaotic silliness, this latest one looks merely like reheated leftovers.

Imagination may be somewhat lacking on the narrative front, but Rappeneau still knows how to turn out a lively cinematic tour de force with crowdpulling potential.  Belles familles is unlikely to match the success of the director's previous - and best film - Cyrano de Bergerac (1990), but it should have no difficulty finding an audience at home and abroad, its glossy production values and prestigious cast making it an easy sell to distributors astute enough to capitalise on the film's obvious plus points.  For a man in his ninth decade, Rappeneau does a good impression of a wild and woolly novice filmmaker, cutting manically and orchestrating impressive camera movements that give the film a relentless sense of energy and spontaneity.  It's the modern equivalent of those great American screwball comedies of the 1930s and 40s, with most of the cast visibly busting a gut to sustain the film's lively pace.  The only thing that is lacking is a script offering more in the way of depth and originality.  There are one or two surprising narrative digressions along the way, but for the most part the film wends its way down a familiar path towards an all too complacent ending.  This is surprising given that the film was co-scripted with Philippe Le Guay, the author of such likeable off-the-wall fare as Les Femmes du 6ème étage (2011) and Alceste à bicyclette (2013).

With a budget of eight million euros at his disposal (a substantial amount for a French comedy of this kind), Rappeneau can afford to go to town, visiting exotic locations in the Far East (an indulgence the plot can easily spare) and employing some of France's biggest actors.  In addition to the aforementioned Amalric, Rappeneau ropes in four other big hitters - Gilles Lellouche, Nicole Garcia, André Dussollier and Karin Viard - as well as getting his money's worth with super-sensual Marine Vacth, looking every bit as stunning as she did in her debut piece, François Ozon's Jeune & jolie (2013).  High energy comedy is not something you would readily associate with any of the above, although, despite the derivative script, all acquit themselves admirably, Amalric's comedy turn being the biggest surprise of all.  Whilst Rappeneau manages to tick most of the boxes in delivering a popular entertainment, his film is ultimately let down by a lack of character depth and craven subservience to mainstream conventionality.  Belles familles is enjoyable but it is essentially just a ridiculously overblown sitcom.

Film Synopsis

On a trip to London, Shanghai-based businessman Jérôme Varenne stops over in Paris to visit his mother and brother, but soon finds a reason to prolong his stay in la Belle France.  It appears that, after his father's death, the family estate in the provinces where Jérôme grew up is up for sale, but the sale is being held up by a legal dispute between a property developer, Grégoire Piaggi, and the town's mayor, Pierre Cotteret.  In the hope of resolving the dispute, Jérôme returns to his childhood home and soon falls prey to conflicting emotions as he renews his acquaintance with Piaggi, a boyhood friend, and uncovers his father's secret life.  After separating from his mother, Jérôme's father cohabited for several years with a young nurse, Florence, and her daughter Louise.  The latter happens to be Piaggi's girlfriend, but that doesn't prevent Jérôme from succumbing to her obvious charms...