There was a quintessentially French feel about this film -the only weakness of this characteristic being the at times overly ‘French’ musical soundtrack – is an accordion really needed? It was both a rom-com (with an emotionally satisfying yet dramatically plausible ending) but also a film with some greater depths, particularly towards the end where the two mothers became the central figures, with its several explorations of how a gay son dealt with his unsympathetic parents.
It was very ‘volubly’ written – judging this by the amount of space taken up by the subtitles and the casually realistic language throughout was reflected in the filming style which had a certain verite style about it. Laurent, one of the main characters, was initially pretty unsympathetic but his development into a better person was very well charted and shown. As the film and relationships developed he became more understandable and sympathetic, particularly in terms of his relationship with his family, this being well apparent from the 50-minute mark. But it did seem that his poetry, flagged up as being an important and central part of who he was, certainly near the start of the film, was an aspect that rapidly got forgotten and by the end of the film had not been really referenced in any significant way
Cinematically it was not particularly interesting in the way that, say a Marco Berger film is although there was one scene – of the first passionate sexual encounter of Laurent and Cedric – which had a fine sweaty and frantic urgency to it.
As the film approached its end and climax, it became apparent that the mothers (of Laurent and Cedric) were at least as important as their sons and their feelings and views of them were of central importance. These were both finely drawn and nuanced characters who played a major part in ensuring that we were emotionally engaged with the film as the climax approached.
The final scene and conclusion was as emotionally satisfying as it was (very largely) plausible although I did have a few doubts when the old trope of ‘a rush to the station to catch the beloved before permanent departure’ did cause a few moments doubt!
A lovely little film that did not have any pretensions to be greater or more serious than it was.