In lesser hands, this might just have been another “odd couple go on a journey” movie that would have made for pleasant, but unremarkable, viewing.
In this case, Director Marc Fitoussi presents us with a film that sets the standard for the genre. The odd couple here, estranged school friends Magalie (Laure Calamy) and Blandine (Olivia Cote) while cast as “types” dig out the depth of the characters and make you feel their joys and sorrows.
The opening sequence showing them as best friends in their school days could perhaps have been left out, it simply underlines what we find out over the course of the film and delays bringing us to their relationship, or lack of it, as adults.
We first meet Blandine and her son Benjamin (Alexandre Desrousseaux) going through boxes of her memorabilia (she kept diaries and small souvenirs all her life) and finding a cd with Magalie’s name on a label. On hearing the story of how they fell out, he resolves to track Magalie down and arranges for them to meet in a restaurant in the hope this will reawaken his mother’s interest in life. He worries, with some justification, that she is turning into a recluse since his father left her and is now about to have a baby with his new, younger, partner.
The meeting does not go well, but Blandine does not tell him this, with the result that he contrives to send Magalie on holiday to Greece with his mother in his stead. A recipe for disaster? Pretty much, from Blandine’s point of view. Her holiday plans for spa days and monastery visits does not chime with Magalie’s (in full blonde bombshell mode) ideas of enjoying all available drink and all available men.
It comes as no surprise that Blandine’s carefully ordered plans are scattered to the winds by Magalie’s well-intentioned but not so well thought out schemes, and the women hop from island to island without reaching their destination. Instead, they end up staying with Magalie’s hippy friend Bijou (a wonderful performance from Kristen Scott Thomas) and her Greek painter lover Dimitris (Panos Koronis). This proves to be a turning point for Blandine when she finds the sorrow that lies beneath Bijou’s determination to make the most of every day.
This is a film raised well above what it might have been by the quality of the actors, in particular Calamy – Magalie could have been overpowering and irritating, but instead she is never less than adorable. A pleasure to watch.
Showing Aberdeen 24th November and Edinburgh Dominion 5th December
Jim Welsh
Radio Summerhall Arts 