Une femme de ménage

This movie has a light plot and lightly written characters: a middle-class neurotic-grumpy-artist falling in love with his young-trashy-placid housemaid. There is a very fine line between lightness and shallowness and that movie can't avoid falling into clichés, especially regarding the world outside the two main characters (like: the ex wife sleeping with the best friend). But the actors Emilie Dequenne and Jean-Pierre Bacri are just so generous towards their characters that they make them real, and utterly lovable. They are captivating and make that little unpretentious movie an enchanting delight.

Claude Berri's latest film that just arrived in America is tailor made for losers of a certain age. M. Berri's picture is a fantasy that most men, abandoned by their former partners, for whatever reason, can dream of a great affair with a Lolita-like woman, who also can clean and put order in their own messy lives.

Jacques lives alone, but he can't bring order into his own existence, after his wife leaves. He then decides to take a chance on an inexperienced young woman, who has more than cleaning in mind. Laure, the housekeeper, he hires, is a woman in need of a great make over. She is as plain, as she is decent; she doesn't even know how to clean the apartment with the vacuum cleaner, preferring to do it the old fashioned way.

Slowly, but surely, she begins to attract this lonely Jacques, until they end romantically involved. Just when one thought this was the romance of a lifetime between these two star crossed lovers, M. Berri has a surprise for us.

Both Jean Pierre Bacri, as Jacques, with his Beagle face and droopy eyes, and Emilie Dequenne, as Laure, are very good.

This film is both comedy and a melodrama about a Parisian classical music producer who lives alone in his Paris flat. He hires a housekeeper without references or much experience. Jacques was brilliantly played by French actor, Jean-Pierre Bacri. The housekeeper, Laura, is perfectly played by Emilie Dequenne. Laura ends up moving into his flat where their musical tastes reflect their ages. They also have an intimate relationship which leads to a trip to Normandy Beach where they see his old friend. Most of the film is about Jacques and Laura's relationship. Jacques is overcoming from a painful breakup with his ex-wife. Laura needs a place to crash and he offers assistance. In the end, they become friends and lovers but I think they both needed each other's companionship for the loneliness felt at the time.

I almost gave up on this one forty minutes in. Don't you do that. The ending is superb.

Premise: working class girl gets dumped by her boyfriend and seeks work by housekeeping.

Well, that can lead to something better if you keep house for the right person.

Jacques (Jean-Pierre Bacri) who recently got walked out on by his wife, and who, not so incidentally looks sixty--well, fifty-five--(actually he was barely fifty when this was made, but you get the point) gets his ad for a housekeeper answered by Laura (Emilie Dequenne) who is twentysomething--a young twentysomething.

I guess there is not much else to say, and to be honest I decided I would force myself to watch the inevitable. But the director is Claude Berri who directed two of the best movies I ever saw: Manon of the Spring (1986) and Jean De Florette (1986).

And so I stayed with it. At about the fifty minute mark the movie started to get interesting. I could feel that old guy/young girl love affair was going to take an unexpected fork in the road. (As Yogi said, if you come to a fork in the road, take it. The players have no choice.) Obviously, old guy/young girl can end only one way: young girl leaves old guy for young guy. This is biology. It will be painful.

Claude Berri knows all this, and probably a lot better than I do. And so guess what? Well, I won't tell. But you will find that the last thirty-some minutes of this sexy romantic comedy delightful, and especially the very, very clever and most satisfying ending.

Just prior to that Laura asks Jacques for his blessing. He won't give it, but she is right: he should. And then when we get the final "life is so...lifelike" grimace on Jacques's face, we can only smile.

Emilie Dequenne is delightful as the strangely wise and very natural Laura, and Jean-Pierre Bacri is winning as the old guy who knows better, but on reflection should thank his lucky stars.

(Note: Over 500 of my movie reviews are now available in my book "Cut to the Chaise Lounge or I Can't Believe I Swallowed the Remote!" Get it at Amazon!)

Please, it's "aspirateur" not "respirateur". Having lived in France for many years I've seen similar situations develop countless times. I've also seen many Claude Berri films and he has got it down pat. It was pleasant to recognize the familiar Paris neighborhood scenes and to wax nostalgic over such familiar goings on. The two leads are most realistic and the supporting actors lend a tone of verité. All in all, a most realistic slice of life à la française. For anyone who has lived in Europe this film will be a pleasant reminder of the sophisticated approach and attitudes that the Europeans (especially the French)bring to situations such as the one depicted in this movie.