country: France
imdb
I can't think of many good romantic comedies and this is definitely not one of them. It does start off with a French charm (oh the dignity, neatness and those pastels!) and you also get the taste of proverbial Spanish charisma, which also serves as an illustration of the class barrier between the "uptight stockbroker" and his wife on the one side and the Spanish maids (immigrants from Francoist Spain) on the other.
It's set in Paris in the 1960s - the story and the characters are pretty straight forward - and it soon becomes clear that it's going to be a story about a good Samaritan and it's going to be a "feel good movie" (I despise "feel good movies" but maybe more about that some other time).
We have the uptight stockbroker, Monsieur Joubert by name (played by Fabrice Luchini) that starts to get the sense of the bad conditions in which the maids who work in their appartment building live in. They live on the 6th floor and you can imagine ... It's a whole other world up there. He had maids around him since he was born but what suddenly made him interested in their lives is the fact that he got a new maid - much younger and vital Maria! She is played by Natalia Verbeke, with a much needed wide smile for the role. There you have the usual suspect that always pairs next to someone uptight - someone to loosen him up and twist his life around. And that is etheric, pure (virgin-like, as also her name suggests) and full of joie de vivre at the same time. Which his wife and other stockbroker mates do not posses!
He grows fond of her and her social circle - the other maids. It was his dirty little secret - enjoying in their joie de vivre and taking pleasure from their thankful eyes and screams of life-long gratitude when he so generously lets them use a phone. For a long distance call! And arranges a repairing of their clogged toilet. Oh only now they deserve it?
The movie wants you to think that they deserve it because they make their poverty and difficult contitions seem so effortless, quite enjoyable and SO FUN! (It sure helps if you have a smile like a JLo - one of her friends was not so blessed and before she could get her sugar daddy she had to pull off an impressive set of hairstyles and changes of wardrobe. Or maybe she just wasn't that pure in her heart, if you believe in this crap?)
So now-not-so-uptight-anymore stockbroker wants to be a part of that "frisky" life. And most of all he wants to be a part of Maria's life. The only slight surprise which was only a surprise because I thought French people have more taste is the part that they just ended up naked in the bed. It's one of the cheesiest scenes I ever witnessed that me and my sister literally screamed from the stomach pain!
Then the movie wants to deliver a little more and it turns out that she has some little secret too. It's probably no spoiler here at all since it all comes with such little surprise but anyway, let's leave it at this point. You can imagine that it ends cheesy and not very well thought.
Along with Fabrice Luchini who is the highlight of the movie - his performance is still charming despite all the above circumstances it also includes the Carmen Maura. She's gets lost among the chatty maids but even their performance cannot help this movie.
my rating: 3/10*
*I was about to rate it 2/10 but my sister passionately dissagreed by saying that scores that low are reserved for movies in which Adam Sandler plays two roles. I thought she made a very good point :)
Just a taste:
Have you watched it? Any different thoughts?
No comments:
Post a Comment