L'étudiante et Monsieur Henri

Wow! I'm so surprised I didn't discover this one sooner ! I really loved it ! I highly recommend it !! I wasn't bored at all watching it. I'll make you smile and cry at the same time.

I enjoy this film, but it is not perfect. The emotion is not fully exploited, although the characters did an excellent job in this film. Maybe it is a bit hurry, and there is some added information, but it is not helpful.

A young woman coming of age. Finding one's direction in life. A man who has given up on life. A couple trying to preserve theirs. This is a film about relationships, and while considerably predictable is still well-done. From directing to camera work, sound and acting, everything is neatly packaged. It is a fairly basic story but enjoyable to watch. If one does not go in expecting Oscar-winning material and instead simply wishes for a good story, this will work. It is not perfect, but few films are. It achieves what it set out to achieve.

Another french feel-good comedy, once more with two outsiders helping each other getting on with life. Though a bit formulaic, this is a good one - entertaining, funny, well paced and with some feeling AND even an "edgy" or slightly unexpected ending (at least for a feel-good comedy, that is). First landlord and lodger, the grumpy old widower Henri, and the nice but shrewd and stubborn student, Constance, soon become a bit more invested than each of them planned to.

The high points are the three main actors (Henri - he gets most laughs; Constance; and Henri's 40ish son, Paul, who initiated the whole lodging scheme so his father is not all alone). Other characters (among them Paul's wife) get rather shortchanged. The movie is based on a stage play, so the dialogue is snappy and very funny; the downside is that the whole thing is not very cinematic - I guess it wouldn't lose much on a home screen. But I recommend seeing this with a weekend crowd in the theater, always a nice experience with those comedies!

I ask myself time and again... how do the French do this? They have a superb knack for taking a very simple story and turning it, without sentiment, into a beautiful, moving, intelligent and uplifting experience.

This is another such gem. Beautifully acted by all players, a simple story of a girl who always 'fails' is turned into a story about how we all are... just humans who are trying to find our way. And sometimes it takes a stranger to see who we really are. Definitely one for parents who might need to put on their thinking caps.

Highly recommended. Delightful.