Ôtez-moi d'un doute

An explosion of feelings and emotions in this "dramedy" subtly written and perfectly played by a great cast. Highly touching movie, as the humanity of all the characters is nicely developed as the movie goes on. A main key of this sweet movie is as you get into it, you can not avoid merging it with your own life and family memories or happening. Whatever your own family issues may be, you are just bound to believe how deep and necessary this mess might be. Watching this movie may thus trigger regret or satisfaction depending on your own situation. There is also an intriguing absence all along: mothers' ones. Indeed, although various families' lives are depicted, none of them includes the crucial figure of the mother, dead for some, away for others ... Besides, fathers' personalities, despite their own weaknesses, have in common their strong humanity arousing sympathy for all of them. How to understand this very specific and compelling plot? I guess only screen writers, one of them being also the movie director, hold the keys to fully understand what can probably be linked with personal matters.

Erwan has a very unusual job...he runs a company along the French coast that disposes of buried munitions. It seems that with the billions of shells and mines cast about the area during WWI and II, even today these are many dangerous bombs being uncovered. But this difficult job is easy compared to what he's in for next. You see, Erwan has just learned that his father is not his biological father and his mother was apparently pregnant with another man's baby when she married. And, with Erwan's daughter pregnant now, he feels a strong need to find out more about his roots. So he pays a private detective to investigate...and soon she gives him a name of a man living only 10 miles away who is his biological dad. But what is he to do about this? After all, he loves his father and doesn't want to hurt him by looking for his biological father. And, to make things worse, he meets a woman and falls for her...only to find that she is the daughter of the man who he thinks is his biological father! She wants Erwan...and Erwan wants her...but she might just be his sister!!

The film is packed with lovely performances. Despite these folks not being big-name actors, they are all terrific. And, you can only assume that the director was in top form and the story gave them a lot with which to work. Well worth seeing!

French comedy with some rather wry social comments on modern morality (intended or not) With a good script this movie weaves its merry way to an involved but satisfying conclusion. Director, co-writer Carine Tardieu gets delightful performances from her top line cast - with more than able support from Belgium born Francois Damiens (Les Cowboys '16), Cecile de France( Monique La Roche in Around the World in 80 Days '04) Veterans; Guy Marchand (Father #1?) and Andre Wilms (Father #2?) everyone works hard to bring this tale to life. At times it looks as if it's about to head into cliché country but thankfully the writers stop short of playing it for cheap thrills. The theme of a man searching for his biological father and the complicated avenues traversed to locate 'dad' are handled with warmth, humility and a pleasing degree of self respect. Photography is stylish with local coastlines and colour being well utilised - in lesser hands this could have easily ended up just another ribald situ-farce but maintains its aim above the waistline to prove worthy of sophisticated adult audiences. Good thoughtful fun.