After watching a film a day for 140 days in a row, I saw this film and wondered if it wasn't time to stop. Le retour du héros, a farce which is one, is insulting, illogical, and infuriating. A supposedly intelligent woman confronts a thieving, lying, sexist coward, and, for absolutely no other reason than the film is nearly over, she decides...well, I'll give you two guesses but you'll only need one. Jean Dujardin plays the lead, whom we are meant to see as a rogue with boyish charm, yet the screenplay gives us no reason to think of him as anything other than an arsehole. He has absolutely no redeemable qualities and thus we see any of the characters who appreciate him (including Mélanie Laurent's) as either an idiot or insane. Sadly, we the viewer are neither. All of this could be at least somewhat overlooked if this "comedy" were a comedy. But the "jokes" consist of a man working meticulously on a model ship, then sitting on it when he's shocked. Or a woman who begs to be slapped in the face whilst cheating on her husband. Or -- and I'm not kidding -- a man who accidentally steps in a hole three times. They couldn't even put all of the funny moments in the trailer because there were none to be found. Are you familiar with the expression, "it's better than nothing"? This film is the exception that proves the rule, because "nothing" would've been far better than this.
Review by Saint PaulyBlockedParent2018-02-18T12:07:04Z
After watching a film a day for 140 days in a row, I saw this film and wondered if it wasn't time to stop. Le retour du héros, a farce which is one, is insulting, illogical, and infuriating.
A supposedly intelligent woman confronts a thieving, lying, sexist coward, and, for absolutely no other reason than the film is nearly over, she decides...well, I'll give you two guesses but you'll only need one.
Jean Dujardin plays the lead, whom we are meant to see as a rogue with boyish charm, yet the screenplay gives us no reason to think of him as anything other than an arsehole. He has absolutely no redeemable qualities and thus we see any of the characters who appreciate him (including Mélanie Laurent's) as either an idiot or insane. Sadly, we the viewer are neither.
All of this could be at least somewhat overlooked if this "comedy" were a comedy. But the "jokes" consist of a man working meticulously on a model ship, then sitting on it when he's shocked. Or a woman who begs to be slapped in the face whilst cheating on her husband. Or -- and I'm not kidding -- a man who accidentally steps in a hole three times. They couldn't even put all of the funny moments in the trailer because there were none to be found. Are you familiar with the expression, "it's better than nothing"? This film is the exception that proves the rule, because "nothing" would've been far better than this.