User Reviews

I saw DU JOUR AU LENDEMAIN about 3 weeks ago in the Angers European Film Festival, it was the first time Le Guay was presenting it to an audience so this was kind of a test for him. According to the great amount of laughter in the room, it seems most of the audience positively responded to this comedy about a French loser who is fed up with his life and his job. I personally thought it was a rather weak comedy. Poolevoorde isn't outstanding. Nevertheless he manages to give his character a good deal of credibility that makes him both moving and sensitive. The real problem that makes this film a little slow and boring isn't the acting nor is it the filming but a deeper problem : the STORY itself. It is inexistent. The plot is interesting - a man awakes one morning and finds out th everything that seemed dull and hateful in his life is now perfect and that makes him go nuts - but Le Guay doesn't make anything out of it and expects the initial situation to be good enough to last 1h30 without running out of steam. The characters aren't deep enough for us to care, the repercussions of such a disruption aren't clear and that gives us the impression, once out of the cinema, to have spent two hours without having seen anything worthwhile. It's a shame given that the movie ends with a rather cheesy and predictable happy end. A good point though for the short musical sequence that comes in as a break with the overall monotony of the movie.

In short, this 90mn movie has 3 30mn parts :

Part I shows the sad, difficult, unlucky life of this failed husband and worker. It's not very interesting as nothing really happens in this dreadful, gray city. It was like a very, very depressive « Brazil ».

Part II shows indeed the change of life but it's still dull and not very funny as it's exactly Part I seen in negative or rather positive. So, no surprises as you can guess all that happens. It's all the more boring that this reversal seems unexplained.

Then, the Part III comes as a surprise and it's only then than the movie is interesting and has Benoit waking up from apathy ! Suddenly, from this moment on, the movie turns into a philosophical journey about the meaning of life and the equilibrium between happiness and despair. I agree with the message that happiness can't be eternal but that a positive mind is useful. From my experience, it's when i start thinking « it's OK now : i'm happy » that problems arise. Then, it's a long tunnel against adversity to eventually reach back the happy level. A crisis is sometimes an hard medication as it was the only way to have new joys, better opportunities !

In conclusion, after an awful first hour, the last 30 minutes save the day but it's too late or too little to conclude i have enjoyed it.

As French comedies go, this must be a masterpiece.

If you think DJAL has too much goofy stuff going on, then check out other - much more typical - French comedies and you'll realize that the gags here are reserved and subtle. For far too long French humour has been about big-nosed clowns slipping on banana-peels and bumping into walls while kids point at them and giggle. Admittedly, the main protagonist does have a big nose, but there is none of the obligatory, exaggerated buffoonery that was to be expected.

The premise of a 180-degree reversal of fortune in the life of a perennial loser is a good one. However, the story meanders, gets lost in various dead-ends; it's as though the writers had no clue where to go with the idea after the first 10-15 minutes. (There is even an utterly awful music&dance piece.) So absurd does the plot get that the main character even starts despising his new-found luck, hating people who suddenly show respect for him, etc. He even refuses the renewed love and commitment he receives from his until-recently estranged wife (whom he loves)! Comedies can be bizarre, and are often even supposed to be that way. Nevertheless, even the most zany script has to have some basic element of truth/reality in order to be funny. I don't see any logic in someone fighting against his luck, and no amount of empty-headed fortune-cookie philosophizing/rationalizing can make me buy the idea that a former down-on-his luck delta male cannot and will not cope with his new life as a successful, happy alpha male.

In spite of that, it's a fairly watchable comedy, with one outstanding scene that made me laugh for minutes: the 5-Euro offer involving the three Spanish businessmen. Pure Python.

And just to set a minor error straight: Ivan Lendl did not win the 1984 French Open finale because "he finally started running" (as is claimed here), but because McEnroe simply ran out of steam...

An unremarkable office worker has to cope with the indifference or even the hostility of his colleagues. His private life is a disaster zone too, since his wife, who has grown tired of his timidity and anxiety, wants a divorce. Even inanimate objects such as coffee machines seem to have it in for him. Suddenly, however, things change for the better. Fate begins to shower the man with one blessing after another...

"Du jour au lendemain" tells the story of an unlucky man who begins to receive one boon or one success after another. He should be happy - well, he IS happy - but after a while he begins to wonder about the how, why and when of this wondrous reversal. He also gets anxious and restless : perhaps because he thinks he is not worthy of such bliss, perhaps because he fears that fickle fate will snatch everything away again, perhaps because he finds it stressful to grow and explore new opportunities. So "Du jour au lendemain" tackles quite an interesting problem : what if happiness were to prove as challenging and stressful as unhappiness ?

Sadly the execution of this fine premise leaves much to be desired. The screenplay wanders and meanders ; eventually it collapses before reaching the finish, like an exhausted runner. The ending feels particularly lazy and uninspired. As a result the movie doesn't have much to say.

Moreover, some of the storylines or details don't make much sense. For instance, in the beginning our protagonist feels disappointed because the pizza he orders as a matter of routine doesn't live up to his expectations : the pizza tends to contain eggs, which he doesn't like. The man has a regular income, owns a telephone and lives in a modern city. So why doesn't he just order pizza from another restaurant ?

I'm still giving the movie some stars because it boasts a few good jokes and a few interesting characters, such as a security guard so obsessed with the Napoleonic era that he is fully capable of insulting random clients. ("How do you dare to show your face in public ? Don't you realise that your ancestor, general X, let the Emperor down when he needed him most ?") Moreover, Benoît Poelvoorde gives a good lead performance.