Starring: Lambert Wilson, Franck Dubosc, Guillaume de Tonquedec, Jerome Commandeur, Caroline Anglade, Lionel Abelanski, Lysiane Meis, Sophie Duez, Valerie Crouzet, Alice Llenas
Distributor: Umbrella
Runtime: 100 mins. Reviewed in Jun 2023
Reviewer: Fr Peter Malone msc
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Four middle-aged French couples on a holiday to celebrate a 50th birthday. Plans go awry, people complain, while secrets are revealed and concealed. Not entirely a happy birthday party.
The French title is playful – a reference to the hotplate on the barbecue. The director made 2014 film, Barbecue. It probably serves as a metaphor for the various ingredients that go onto a hotplate, warm up, get heated, can get burnt. The English title is straightforward and factual – except that this celebration of the 50th birthday is often unhappy.
This is a French film with French sensibilities, French manners and interactions. We are introduced to four cheerful couples at the airport, planning to fly to Greece for a holiday for the 50th birthday of one of them, Yves (de Tonquedec). Then the plane is cancelled and Yves suggests they all go to his home in Brittany – and, with some reluctance, especially about the lack of sunshine for the vacation, they drive there. Yves welcomes them to his home, delighted to be able to explain everything Breton to his friends, especially his ancestors.
Many times throughout this film, the audience might be wondering what they are doing sharing this holiday with the couples, especially with three of the men who are particularly cantankerous. And, at times, we seem to be listening in to conversations which we would prefer not to hear – that we are eavesdropping. And, at times they can be particularly dislikeable.
It does rain. It pours. But, the group find things to pass the time, jigsaw puzzles, Trivial Pursuit, some outings and walks towards the ocean . . .
However, grumbling and cantankerousness often prevail. Baptiste (Dubosc), can be particularly obnoxious, thinking that he might have been sacked from his long-time job, waiting for a phone call from his boss, highly critical of his patient wife, condescendingly patriarchal in his remarks. Actually, his friends don’t include him in their particular club, Tennis Without Baptiste, because he is not a team player, and a poor tennis player at that. Can he be redeemable?
The wives are present for the vacation but tend to be in the background.
Then there is Antoine, the leader of the group, played by veteran Wilson. He is also a complainer, hard on his wife, still brooding over the death of his father a year earlier, a father with whom he could not communicate. Not surprisingly, at one stage, his wife considers leaving him.
The seeming odd man out of the group is Laurent (Abelanski), not as well educated as the others, very poor at Trivial Pursuit, not even knowing the novel featuring Jean Valjean. And he is rather resentful of another friend from the past, Jean-Mich’ (Commandeur), who comes with his wife and son from Costa Rica where he has successfully set up a business (and who knows all the answers in Trivial Pursuit). Laurent’s wife is an amateur sculptor and brings one of her works as a gift only to discover that everybody thinks it something of a joke.
There is more to come, with Antoine bringing a gift for Yves’ birthday and investigations as to his ancestry, some potentially disastrous information, and the dilemma of whether a secret should be kept or the truth told. There is a very effective sequence where the group discuss this issue.
After spending this vacation with the group, whether we like it or not, we realise that friends like this do need some kind of looking back at the past, acknowledging mistakes and clashes, a bit of confessing to cleanse the soul. Which does mean that they can participate in a local festival and have a happy ending.
So, the question – whether we really want to be on holidays with this group or not.
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