Review of The Adventures of Felix

With "western" by Manuel Poirier, "drôle de Félix" ranks among the few French road-movies that can equal American road-movies. This is the story of a young man, Félix. He's a middle manager in a firm, lives in Dieppe and he's HIV positive because he's a gay person. One day, he decides to make his way to Marseille in the south of France in order to meet his father and he doesn't know him. A long route full of pitfalls is waiting for him but it will be the occasion for him to meet several people. He'll become so attached to them that he'll even consider them as members of his imaginary family!

I think that these different meetings are of varying quality but the film-makers wrote a clever screenplay that avoids the stereotypes linked to Félix' disease. Félix is gay and HIV positive but no-one is aware of it (except, of course, his lover at the beginning of the movie). During the trip, he's doing his best to hide his disease.

The movie especially enjoys an outstanding performance, of course Sami Bouajila but also the actors who constitute his "family". Moreover, the rhythm is well sustained. At the end of the movie there remains a doubt: this man who's fishing on the docks of Marseille, is he Félix' real father or an unknown person? You can think what you want...

A slight, nice movie and a new lease of life for the road-movie.