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9 July 2004 | The Hollywood Reporter | See recent The Hollywood Reporter news »

Pierre Javaux Prods.

Montreal World Film Festival

MONTREAL -- Former film journalist and scriptwriter Marc Esposito's directorial debut was a big crowd-pleaser in French-speaking Montreal, where it played in competition. The dialogue is often witty and performances are certainly crisp, but a very talky script (by Esposito) and a story line that focuses wholly on domestic ructions will mean that it's too ordinary a picture to do much business outside of French-speaking territories.

"French Men" details the various midlife crises of four male friends: Alex (Marc Lavoine), a habitual philanderer whose sexploits are starting to interfere with his otherwise happy marriage

Jeff (Gerard Darmon), a separated fiftysomething who's having a fun-filled relationship with a much younger woman

Manu (Jean-Pierre Darroussin), a lonely shopkeeper who falls into an unexpected affair

and Antoine (Bernard Campan), a troubled husband who ditches his wife when he discovers that she had a one-night stand. The story follows each of their adventures and uses the distressed Antoine's marital strife -- should he or shouldn't he divorce? -- as an emotional core.

The script offers an impressive array of one-liners, and the ensemble cast works hard to keep things moving. All four men come across as quite charming in spite of their peccadilloes, and the setup would have certainly have made an attractive television drama. But on the big screen, the material's just too thin. More backstory about how they all met and managed to remain friends despite differing lifestyles would have helped add depth.

"French Men" is very much a "boy's own" film. Women are presented as an array of stereotypes which include jealous wives, adoring younger girlfriends, sexy office flirts and the like. Jeff's girlfriend even pretends to be a machine so that he can rewind her to give him a hug, a scene which sums up the film's attitude toward women.

Structurally, Esposito manages to interlock the four stories with some skill. But last year's Montreal crowd-pleaser "See How They Run" -- also a French-language ensemble piece -- examined similar problems with more verve and originality. »

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1 item from 2004