7/10
Baby blues
20 September 2008
Warning: Spoilers
For his first fiction film, documentarist Vincent Garenq did not choose the easy way out: he chose to write and direct a comedy of manners about a sensitive subject: homosexuality and parenthood. Describing the life of a gay couple is delicate and may give rise to either dirty or coarsely 'comic' scenes and Garenq's first and main achievement is to have been able to show two men in love and in conflict just like the two partners of a heterosexual couple, which makes the title of the film ('Like All Others') particularly relevant. One simple example: when the couple formed by Manu (Lambert Wilson) and Philippe (Pascal Elbé) find each other again after a long breakdown, we spectators feel no embarrassment at all at seeing them exchange a kiss. We have developed a liking for the two characters in the meantime and feel good, just like when a woman and a man who have split up for a while kiss tenderly for the first time after wards. Another success is the cruel 'romance' that unites Manu and Fina (Pilar Lopez de Ayala) and then pits them against each other. The moments of shared -and later unrequited -love are filled with true emotion, particularly thanks to Ayala's radiant looks and freshness. On the other hand, Garenq manages to go through all the aspects of the question and convincingly shows how hard it is to become a gay parent (homosexuals have to show their credentials whereas ordinary parents can breed children whatever their defects) or a surrogate mother (bearing a child for another and part with it as of the delivery is no pleasure cruise). These scenes always ring true, which is no small feat.

'Comme les autres' is in turn comic (Manu's repeated blunders, his family's reaction when he announces he has left his partner, will marry Fina and have a kid), moving (see above) and sociologically relevant. Wonderfully played by Lambert, Ayala, Elbé and the always reliable Anne Brochet, this film would be excellent if Garenq did not indulge in the easy solution in the end, while he had managed to avoid it throughout. Indeed by making Philippe, the man who hated babies, become a sugar daddy out of the blue, he demands a suspension of belief that is too much. At least for this writer.
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