Starring: Kev Adams, Gerard Depardieu, Antoine Dulery, Daniel Prevost, Oussama Kheddam and Ludovic Berthillot, Mylene Demongeot, Marthe Villalonga, Liliane Rovere and Firmine Richard
Distributor: Other
Runtime: 97 mins. Reviewed in Jul 2022
Reviewer: Peter W Sheehan
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This subtitled French comedy, alternatively titled ‘Retirement Home’, tells the story of a young man who avoids prison by agreeing to work in a retirement home for the elderly.
An orphaned young man, Milann Rousseau (Adams) has an unfortunate encounter with a cranky, elderly woman, while she is shopping in a local supermarket in which he works. In their interaction, he accidentally injures her, and she reports his behaviour to management. The police get involved and they arrest him, but he can avoid imprisonment by doing Community Service at the Maison de Mimosas retirement centre.
Milann’s main problem is that he is uncomfortable around elderly people; he is acutely conscious that he was orphaned by them. Nevertheless, he chooses to work in the retirement home on parole rather than go to jail, and he decides to survive as best he can by trying to overcome his problem. A friend of his, Moncef (Kheddam), persuaded the judge at his trial to sentence him to 300 hours of community service in a retirement home, instead of jail, and Milann thinks he has no alternative.
Milann knows that he will have difficulty relating to the residents of the retirement home, but this one has a committee which could make life extra difficult for him. The Committee is led by a retired boxer, Lino Vartan (Depardieu). However, when the Committee attempts rather amiably to get the better of him, he recognises that there is genuine humanity and a spirit of togetherness that exists among its members.
In his interactions with management, Milann surmises that the home’s director, Daniel Ferrand (Dulery), doesn’t have his residents’ interests at heart at all. Ferrand won’t allow any excursions, for example, and he employs a threatening security guard, Erwann (Berthillot), to enforce whatever he wants. Milann thinks (correctly so) that the residents are actually being imprisoned in their Maison, and he knows that it was imprisonment that he felt desperate to avoid. Milann finds that the retirees are being exploited by the crooked director, and decides to help them whatever way he can. He jumps to their defence: he engages interactively with them; he schemes on their behalf; and he uses his skills to help them.
The film exposes the abuse of the elderly, but does so with distinct affection for the retirees. The movie has an excellent ensemble cast which creates good comic moments in the development of its plotline.
In some ways, the film reminds one of Queen Bees (2022), where an independent woman moved into a retirement community in which there was a group of ‘queen bees’ led by a dominating retiree.
In both films, there is expected coverage of memory impairment in the elderly; in this film, though, Alfred (Prevost) gives his apparent memory loss a warm touch. The movie addresses the challenges of ageing, and the loss of independence in human ways. Life’s struggles are captured in script-related messages that amuse, but the film tugs at nostalgic memories in French style, by letting situations get humorously out of hand. The movie not only extracts its comedy from what is said, but also out of situational absurdity that is funny.
This is a film that highlights the abilities of ageing performers in gentle and kind ways. It offers light, entertaining fare, and is filled with genuinely comic moments. Depardieu shows again that he is a highly talented actor who is equally at home with serious drama, death and murder – as in Maigret (2022), for example – as he is with light comedy. The movie ends with orphaned children and ageing retirees enjoying life happily together, and a crooked director brought to justice.
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