There are films you just wonder how anybody ever thought this would make a good movie. But this is not such a film. Here you can clearly see that a good idea is behind it and backed with these great actors it hat a fair chance to be very good indeed. Alas, it would have needed a better screenplay, the story sometimes drifts away and some side characters who might have been good to develop, never really got a chance to unfold their skills. They are used for cheap cracks but are abandoned the next moment, instead of being woven into the story. And a better director would be needed as well. If a film of just 92 minutes length appears to have dull moments you know the timing is wrong.
There are entertaining and even touching moments, but the way the story is told it feels as if it cannot decide to play it for laughs or for tears. Not that you can't do both. All you have to do is make your heros likable enough and the audience will get along. But we don't know enough of them to understand their, sometimes strange, behavior. Charlotte Rampling and Jean Rochefort give their best and have deserved a better treatment.
There are entertaining and even touching moments, but the way the story is told it feels as if it cannot decide to play it for laughs or for tears. Not that you can't do both. All you have to do is make your heros likable enough and the audience will get along. But we don't know enough of them to understand their, sometimes strange, behavior. Charlotte Rampling and Jean Rochefort give their best and have deserved a better treatment.