In the recent annals of French film exports there has been quite the abundance of titles specifically tailored and pandering to someone's idea of international tastes, resulting in often good, but largely superficial, attempts a la the Taxi franchise and Brotherhood of the Wolf.
Luckily, Three Fugitives director Francis Veber supervised a candid project rekindling interest in Franco comedy of the old school, uplifting variety. Brief and efficient, the movie succeeds in creating distinct characters while doing away with extra baggage and needless posturing. It also balances elegant slapstick with witty verbiage, often producing hilarious situations by way of brilliant composition standing firm on foundations of truly humorous prose. Gerard Depardieu comes in as Quentin, a kindly career thief and full time doofus with a knack for ceaseless mouthing off and mental wanderlust. His hapless misadventures land him in prison time and again, but since none of the inmates can withstand his wide-eyed pestering, authorities soon resort to pairing him with Ruby (Jean Reno), a hardened assassin bent on whacking his former boss, Vogel. The latter made the mistake of putting Ruby's femme six feet under, and now must face the stolid operator's wrath. With Quentin trailing him and unilaterally deciding the two should become close friends and business partners, Ruby's plans need to bring into account a whole mess of accidental hijinx stemming from the surprisingly youthful Depardieu's bumbling naivete and grossly imaginative daydreaming. Of course, the old adage about two opposites working well together soon rings true, with the duo deftly outpacing both police and mob overlord. All this transpires amid a series of situations likely to put a smile even on vehemently stern faces. Not as reliant on one-liners as many other comedies, Tais Toi pools its resources from springs of clever dialogue and genuinely outlandish protagonists, such as superb actor Jean-Pierre Malo's supposedly menacing Vogel, whose sinister agenda falls prey either to the two runaway heroes' cunning pranks, or his own posse of incompetent henchmen.
Dialing in at under 90 minutes, Tais Toi's remarkably solid content gets the job done in a host of ways save for the obvious, and for that wins extra credit as a real, Paris-flavored caper of the type we thought ended when disastrous atrocities like Dumb and Dumber became the norm.
Additionally, after so many years of seeing him execute Hollywood's typecasting notions in various projects such as Leon, Godzilla, Rollerball and, for shame, Mission: Impossible, witnessing Reno in native mode does warm the heart and hone the old senses. We even picked up some French slang thanks to him, although why Parissiennes refer to cops as Le Flick remains a mystery. The only niggle some point one may call attention to has to be the movie's rather annoying product placement, with one short scene taking place at a UGC cineplex somewhere in Paris. Eagle-eyed members of the audience will note that UGC also produced Tais Toi, making their logo's prominence more than merely suspect. But beyond such petty nit-picking, TT leaves a distinctly positive impression as a comprehensive comedic tour de force, nicely containing all the genre's time-honored essentials and rejuvenating qualities.
Rating * * * 1/2
Luckily, Three Fugitives director Francis Veber supervised a candid project rekindling interest in Franco comedy of the old school, uplifting variety. Brief and efficient, the movie succeeds in creating distinct characters while doing away with extra baggage and needless posturing. It also balances elegant slapstick with witty verbiage, often producing hilarious situations by way of brilliant composition standing firm on foundations of truly humorous prose. Gerard Depardieu comes in as Quentin, a kindly career thief and full time doofus with a knack for ceaseless mouthing off and mental wanderlust. His hapless misadventures land him in prison time and again, but since none of the inmates can withstand his wide-eyed pestering, authorities soon resort to pairing him with Ruby (Jean Reno), a hardened assassin bent on whacking his former boss, Vogel. The latter made the mistake of putting Ruby's femme six feet under, and now must face the stolid operator's wrath. With Quentin trailing him and unilaterally deciding the two should become close friends and business partners, Ruby's plans need to bring into account a whole mess of accidental hijinx stemming from the surprisingly youthful Depardieu's bumbling naivete and grossly imaginative daydreaming. Of course, the old adage about two opposites working well together soon rings true, with the duo deftly outpacing both police and mob overlord. All this transpires amid a series of situations likely to put a smile even on vehemently stern faces. Not as reliant on one-liners as many other comedies, Tais Toi pools its resources from springs of clever dialogue and genuinely outlandish protagonists, such as superb actor Jean-Pierre Malo's supposedly menacing Vogel, whose sinister agenda falls prey either to the two runaway heroes' cunning pranks, or his own posse of incompetent henchmen.
Dialing in at under 90 minutes, Tais Toi's remarkably solid content gets the job done in a host of ways save for the obvious, and for that wins extra credit as a real, Paris-flavored caper of the type we thought ended when disastrous atrocities like Dumb and Dumber became the norm.
Additionally, after so many years of seeing him execute Hollywood's typecasting notions in various projects such as Leon, Godzilla, Rollerball and, for shame, Mission: Impossible, witnessing Reno in native mode does warm the heart and hone the old senses. We even picked up some French slang thanks to him, although why Parissiennes refer to cops as Le Flick remains a mystery. The only niggle some point one may call attention to has to be the movie's rather annoying product placement, with one short scene taking place at a UGC cineplex somewhere in Paris. Eagle-eyed members of the audience will note that UGC also produced Tais Toi, making their logo's prominence more than merely suspect. But beyond such petty nit-picking, TT leaves a distinctly positive impression as a comprehensive comedic tour de force, nicely containing all the genre's time-honored essentials and rejuvenating qualities.
Rating * * * 1/2