Review of Tanguy

I suspect this is more of a grey comedy masquerading as Black. Given that's it's about a relative - in this case a son - who's a pain in the ass it's tempting to see it as another angle on the same director's 'Tatie Danielle' where an aunt and not a son was the cause of friction but that would be to superficialize. Tanguy (Eric Berger) has it made; 28 years old, fluent in both Chinese and Japanese and earning good money as a teacher whilst completing his ph.D. A regular girl friend who's anxious to set up light housekeeping with him plus all the spare tail he wants. You're probably waiting for me to describe the kind of swinging bachelor pad that Sinatra used to have in movies like The Tender Trap but the twist is that Tanguy does all this from his parent's house and they've had just about enough thank you very much so they decide to 'encourage' him to leave by taking the cush out of his cushy lifestyle. But Tanguy is not just fluent in Chinese and Japanese he is also an advocate of Eastern philosophy so he turns everything around and smiles tolerantly if not quite inscrutably at all their best-laid plans. The long-suffering parents Edith and Paul (set designer and architect respectively) are played by Sabine Azema and Andre Dussollier, veterans at acting together and boy, does it show. Add a cynical aunt, Paul's mother (Helene Duc) whose constant needling finally spurs them to action and you have a cast that could make Bowling For Dollars seem like Moliere. A fine movie which addresses a subject that is now relevant in England if not other countries.