Les reines du ring

Four working class women employed in a neighbourhood supermarket take up wrestling (le catch) as a show of solidarity for one of their coworkers who is trying to win back her son's affection. Featuring hilarious physical comedy and spunky female characters indulging in the thrills of mock violence and comic super heroine costumes, this is a classic underdog comedy with a twist as women appropriate the usually male-dominated wrestling ring. Nathalie Baye is terrific as the under-appreciated mother, André Dussollier fulminates as their comeback coach, and the other three principals Marilou Berry, Audrey Fleurot, and the goth butcher Corinne Masiero are all marvellous. Lots of laughs and a heart-warming story.

One of my biggest gripes of the popular annual French Film Festival here in Australia is that the audience is often made up of the types of people who pride themselves on not being caught dead at a mainstream Hollywood film in a shopping complex cinema, and yet they laugh hysterically at comedies that are more poorly written than most Adam Sandler comedies! This one is another case in point. There is no focus on character - every time there is a hint of character development, the director cuts to another lame-joke scene so as not to dwell on anything real. The jokes and scenarios come straight out of the types of films Hollywood made back in the 80s, with similar base concepts ("man becomes housewife" or "teenager becomes werewolf" is simply replaced with "women become wrestlers"). I am no wrestling fan, but I wouldn't be surprised if female wrestlers are actually slightly offended by the way they are depicted here. One to miss.

Nice French comedy without an ounce of arrogance. Lot of critics said that it was a bit heavy-handed and heartwarming. But of course, it's the point. Truffaut fans, go away! The objective is obviously to keep us entertained, make us laugh and fill us up with positive feelings. I found it fun, heartwarming and quite modern : perfect. Plus it is quite enjoyable to see those normal women, mums and cashiers, former prisoners getting famous. Of course, I don't recommend to people who are looking for thought provoking movies. But for people who just want to get a fun moment and get rid of negative thoughts, this is a very nice movie.

I found this movie on DVD at a local Dollar Tree, saw it was WWE, so I bought it. After I was watching though, I realized the film has been dubbed into English from the original French version. Dubbed movies are never done well to begin with when they're low budget. Other than that, the English dialogue wasn't too awful!

However, I don't know how WWE Studios got mixed up with this movie. It barely has anything to do with WWE other than mentioning some of the wrestlers, like John Cena.

Definitely not for kids, the language is at least equal to PG-13, if not worse.