Roulez jeunesse

A film which begins as a comedy and ends up as a drama ;it's not derivative on the French scene dominated by the "feel good" genre.Behind the misadventures of a young mechanic ,a really good Samaritan ,you must pay attention to see what serious things the movie is saying :nowadays some unfortunate children are left to their own advices ,parents are irresponsible , the equal opportunities are a myth ; it happens every day and the society has to be blamed : one does not know who the children's mom was -she does not appear in the movie,and for a good reason- , perhaps was she herself a child whose parents did not care for her.

Eric Judor shines in this offbeat movie : a forty-something mechanic ,still leaving in his mother's house ( not exactly to be precise) , a mother who always puts him down -she's at once his mom and the owner of the little tow-truck business where he 's working-

The day he has to take care of children whose mom has vanished into thin air , he will go out of his way for them in a rather selfish background , people turning their back on him ;all he does backfires on him.When the social worker lends a helping hand,she's simply doing her job ,her commitment to the children's fate is purely professional . But the hung up mechanic ,for the first time in his life,has understood that ,by becoming a "surrogate "dad for these abandoned kids, he has found a way to stop being a grown-up kid himself .

The most tragic (and I mean tragic) scene of the film is filmed with a stunning economy of means, a keen sense of decency : as Richard -1787 wrote in his insightful review , one didn't expect much from this movie, and absolutely not such a sequence :even the dog called Elvis plays an important part in the drama.

One can regret that one more time English songs (the Moody blues' "nights in white satin " is irrelevant in that context) are used in the movie :it's all the more irritating since the score is nice,particularly the instrumental on the final cast and credits .

On the other hand ,the final sequence is heart-warming ; after a tragedy ,life must go on: now the hero is a man and as such he acts even though his attitude may seem reckless.

I entirely second the first review.

Alex, 43 years old, is a repairman in the garage that his mother runs with an iron fist. One day, he helps out Prune, a pretty girl who is a bit lost. Taking advantage of the opportunity, Alex spends the night at her place. In the morning, he realizes with amazement that the young woman has disappeared, leaving him with her three young children.

A first feature film that skillfully mixes comedy (the tribulations of an immature forty-year-old infantilized by an authoritarian mother) and drama (three children abandoned by an irresponsible mother) without falling into the excesses of either the comedy film or the melodrama. The film, well written, is well served by its performers, Eric Judor (who reveals here his hidden side, that of sensitivity), Laure Calamy (full of energy), Marie Kremer (uninhibited and unrestrained, far from the sweet young girls she once played), Brigitte Roüan (castrating mother figure) as well as a trio of very convincing children. A good start for Julien Guetta.

I didn't expect much from this movie, but it turned out to be a real winner. Its success is due almost entirely to the star, Eric Judor, a fine actor who turned what could have been a facile caricature into an often moving three-dimensional character. The man has charisma and to spare, but he played the role in an often understated way that made the tow-truck driver that much more interesting.

I strongly recommend this movie.