the audience applauded

good back-story, and good acting

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

A marriage on the rocks, where both sides look for something on the side. The only sparkle comes in the form of the Mrs asking her husband for assistance with an acquaintance's immigration issues. In theory it should have been easy; his father is a high ranking civil servant. Given however the dysfunctional relationship between father and son, it makes it a rather mammoth task and it gets more interesting when the son falls for the émigré and thus intensifies the efforts.In a typically French fashion, this comedy score high and wit and sophistication with a generous dose of satire towards modern life and interpersonal relationships.

Born in 1946 Bonitzer had just entered his teens when the much-vaunted Nouvelle Vague had its moment in the sun and clearly it left a mark on an impressionable mind because Bonitzer's day job used to be penning reviews for Cahiers du Cinema, the infamous breeding-ground of Truffaut, Godard and their cronies. Further, Bonitzer clearly thinks it clever to take top post-Nouvelle Vague talents like Jean-Pierre Bacri, Claude Rich, Isabelle Carre and Kristen Scott Thomas and saddle them with a Nouvelle Vague type plot, six parts pretentiousness to three parts gobbledygook. The whole thing is shrouded in a bizarre non-colour as if Bonitzer couldn't quite justify shooting in the black-and-white stock of choice of the new waveleteers but at the same time couldn't quite bring himself to shoot in decent colour. Actors of this calibre will always triumph over merde but unless you are a die-hard fan of one or more of the leading actors give this one a miss.

This film is about a man in an unhappy marriage, who agrees to help his brother in law's friend. The help turns his life in unexpected directions."Cherchez Hortense" depicts an unhappy family convincingly. The lack of communication between the couple and the tension between the mother and the son is displayed in a way that is not over the top. The husband's chance encounter with Aurore flows naturally, and the progression of their friendship is a pleasure to watch. The Judge acts appears pleasant on the surface but he is doing everything he could to be difficult towards others. The plethora of human interaction portrayed in this film is like a miniature world of everyday life. Life can be bitter for some, sweet for others. "Cherchez Hortense" is a sweet romantic comedy.

I can see why such a movie could be so easily dismissed by your regular Hollywood addict, it's slow, rather smart and very much grounded in reality, and it's your typical Parisian literary approach to cinema story telling. Although I should emphasize the fact that I don't use the word typical in a derogatory way. Desplechin, Podalydes, Bonitzer, Resnais and other French directors, may seem stylistically or thematically close, but in truth are very different from one another. They take movies seriously, the European way, for them it's not about plot or sending a clear message to the viewer, they're more concerned with lofty concepts, creating a mood or simply sharing their views on the human condition. So yes, the protagonist is an intellectual (so is Bonitzer, he used to be a philosophy teacher) and yes, the thing happening to him may not seem to warrant a 2 hour movie, his life is boring, and so is often our own. Bonitzer, shows the naked truth, and it's risky, because that's not why most people go to movies, and I get that, but the movie is actually fun (in parts), never sentimental but sincere and touching. It's a fine movie, honest, solid, definitely worthy of the price of admission. It's very French and definitely naturalistic and intellectual, but pretentious it is not, but to put it simply, it'll be freezing in Hell before Bonitzer starts dumbing down his movies!