legentillucide Review of Congorama

Congorama (2006)

An awful movie ! With a reference for French-speaking moviegoers.

[2/10 · 11 April 2008]

I was greatly disappointed with this movie, greatly ! Why ? For many reasons. Having heard so many favorable echoes about it, it did not help at all when I was «confronted» to the «real thing» ! But there is much more than just disappointed expectations. The main Belgian character -- interpreted in a languid manner by Olivier Gourmet -- is so unappealing, so morose, so uninteresting, so humorless, and physically unpleasing (fat, slow moving, with a vague air of not being very quick-witted)... The other, younger, character is, globally, somewhat better. I had immensely liked Paul Ahmarani in Philippe Falardeau's -- the same director -- first and much, much better film «The Left Half of the Fridge»), this time his head seemed even more «special» than ever, with hardly any eyebrows and a more hooked nose ! As for the «story» itself, I found it muddled, confusing, uninteresting, without any emotions, or suspense... and with only a hint of (supposedly ?) humor. All this being stated, the only very brief surprise came from the car accident with the big ostrich-like bird. Finally, I wonder as to how on earth could such a movie be so «successful» ? I know that Gourmet is usually a crowd pleaser, usually in secondary parts of European movies. And so... Apart from having this film dealing (in such an oblique and slow manner) with a person's search for his roots and the fact that, deep down, all origins and races are inter-linked, what's all the positive fuss about ? I can only guess that the many satisfied spectators might have chosen to mainly identify with these aspects -- roots, identity -- «spreading», so to speak, their admiration to the film as a whole. Perhaps this ling -- Mulderville.net (in French) -- found in the External reviews section will help understand what I mean. P.-S.: I might SEEM to be stressing the physical appearances of the two leads. If I do that, it's not to oppose, in a fickle way, «beauty» to «ugliness», not at all, but to oppose likability to its opposite !