Those who love to detract female directors will probably opine that it is just as well that Nicole Garcia is still acting (her latest movie is in the Cutting Room even as I write) and though I confess, as a fan of Garcia the realisateuse, to being a tad disappointed with this entry I can't go along with that lobby who think she should turn in her bullhorn; she's given us some fine movies in the past and clearly has more fine ones in her. Jean-Pierre Bacri is always going to be an asset to anybody's movie and not just those of his long-time partner Agnes Jaoui, which he also co-writes and here he delivers his best-known persona the miserable grouch which now fits him like a glove. I've never been much of a Benoit Magimal booster in fact the best I can normally give him is that he's the least objectionable of three current French heart throbs the other two being Vincent Cassell and Romain Duris but here he turns in a half decent and sympathetic performance whilst the usually reliable Vincent Lindon seems to be having an off day. Part of the problem is that the film has nothing new to say but insists on saying it anyway; the plot is our old friend the intersecting lives in a small town where no one is having much fun least of all the audience. On the other hand Garcia really is incapable of making a completely bad film and there are just enough touches to make it tolerable if not memorable.
Review of Selon Charlie
