French Toast

Beautifully shot in So Africa and Paris. Light and fluffy like a Parisian croissant, and not as predictable as it appears. It entertained me and transported me to Paris in the summer and made me forget our current unhappy pandemic reality!

This is like a really bad soap opera with terrible acting. Also full of stupid French clichés and sappy music. Dialogues are insipid. Really nothing to save it. Avoid wasting your time!

Romantic comedies aren't supposed to be stellar narratives or strong on character development, but sometimes, they are superb on all fronts. Not French Toast, despite some decent acting, cinematography, and direction. The trouble lay in the writing, especially the climactic scene, which left us confused. The music was frequently intrusive and one or two of the characters were really too cliched to care about. Interestingly, for a film set in 1980s South Africa, there was not a single person of colour in the cast. All that said, I appreciated being able to hear Afrikaans in a film--a comparatively very rare experience.

Hmmm... there are some real strengths in this caper; mostly a good storyline, scenery of south africa and of paris. some fun moments, as Lisa and JeanPierre romp around town. there are also some large plot holes... the odds of the huge coincidences that occur. i don't want to get too specific to spoil any surprises, but by the end, its a little much. people in the film fall for each other very quickly. this feels like the basic premise of real family secrets and having unknown siblings in other countries really is someone's own story. but then they embellished on the details. and there are some very confusing moments. I had to turn on subtitles, since they speak afrikaans, english, and french. Lots of krugers in the credits.... seems to be a family project. writer, director, cast, even the producers. on netflix, so i also used rewind a couple times. it's mostly good, but has some weaknesses. like any film, i guess.

Make sure you have subtitles on as it is in English, French and Afrikaans. Lovely photos of Paris, sweet story. May be unbelievable but a feel good romance without graphic.