O Doutor da Felicidade

Usually Omar Sy can do no wrong for me, I love his work, but he came over as creepy in this, and the story didn't hold me. I did try, but couldn't finish it.

Witty story, adapted from the book by Jules Romains, about a small French town that meets its new doctor. Monsieur docteur knows best and most citizens love him for whatever he does. A bit of action, a little tear, and plenty of safe humor. The tempo is low, the story is not too exciting but Omar Sy (The Intouchables, Monsieur Chocolat) is holding the movie together with his signature mimics and fast body motion. The scenery is sweet, the music score (Cyrille Aufort) reminded me, with the bittersweet melody, of both Danny Elfman and Yann Tiersen.

The movie is quite funny. While it tells a beautiful story of belonging and society, it is interspersed with funny moments, quotes, situations.

It is a feel good movie, you shouldn't expect deep gut wrenching choices that build character. The joy is in the beautiful pictures that are painted of rural France in the late 20th Century.

Simple story, yet beautifully told and played! The sceneries, the village and the people are so authentic and lovely. Omar Sy plays the doctor with so much sincerity, panache and humour. It's not about how accurate the movie is, it's about a story of belief in the face of adversity and challenges. You feel the characters, their daily dilemma, their battle and the boredom they encounter in their little village. The doctor, though, at first, main desire is to make money, he, then, sees and experiences the love shown to him by the villagers. Overall, the acting by each character is just fabulous and palpable.

While I understand movies adapted from books can take some liberties, there is something fundamentaly wrong in this film : the message is nothing but the opposite. Where Jules Romans finely depicted the excesses of medicine and modern sales technics, the scriptwriter of this mill turns the affair into a glorification of medicine. Where Jules Romain presents an unscrupulous crook, our scriptwriter presents a humanist almost honest, philanthropic. Incidentally, the scriptwriter slips into history with heavy insistence a continual mockery of the priest of the village totally absent from Jules Romain's novel. Finally, it remains a modern comedy, without finesse, very unappetizing, adapted to the decrepit masses who, in any case, will never have the idea to read the original. And whose only quality is the relatively correct game of Omar Sy. Three stars for the acting game ; otherwise would be one star.