Another french feel-good comedy, once more with two outsiders helping each other getting on with life. Though a bit formulaic, this is a good one - entertaining, funny, well paced and with some feeling AND even an "edgy" or slightly unexpected ending (at least for a feel-good comedy, that is). First landlord and lodger, the grumpy old widower Henri, and the nice but shrewd and stubborn student, Constance, soon become a bit more invested than each of them planned to.
The high points are the three main actors (Henri - he gets most laughs; Constance; and Henri's 40ish son, Paul, who initiated the whole lodging scheme so his father is not all alone). Other characters (among them Paul's wife) get rather shortchanged. The movie is based on a stage play, so the dialogue is snappy and very funny; the downside is that the whole thing is not very cinematic - I guess it wouldn't lose much on a home screen. But I recommend seeing this with a weekend crowd in the theater, always a nice experience with those comedies!
The high points are the three main actors (Henri - he gets most laughs; Constance; and Henri's 40ish son, Paul, who initiated the whole lodging scheme so his father is not all alone). Other characters (among them Paul's wife) get rather shortchanged. The movie is based on a stage play, so the dialogue is snappy and very funny; the downside is that the whole thing is not very cinematic - I guess it wouldn't lose much on a home screen. But I recommend seeing this with a weekend crowd in the theater, always a nice experience with those comedies!