15 août (2001) - film review

One August, three friends – Max, Vincent and Raoul – arrive at their rented holiday home, only to find that their wives have gone off on their own, leaving them to look after their children.  As the days pass, and the three men struggle to adapt to their new role, nerves soon begin to fray, and they wonder why their wives have abandoned them and if they will ever return…

15 août, Patrick Alessandrin’s second film, starts well enough, and offers so much with its distinguished trio of lead actors Berry, Berling and Darroussin.  However, all too quickly the characters are reduced to familiar stereotypes and the narrative becomes stale, throwing up situations which have been done before – and better – in previous films of this genre.  This is not to deny that the film does have entertainment value, with some great comic moments.  Its main fault is that is doesn’t seem to offer anything new or even dare to challenge the conventional views of what men do and think.  The washing machine sequence is a case in point.  For once, it would be so nice to see a male character do the household laundry without causing some comic book domestic disaster… This is how women like to think of men: utterly useless about the home and driven by one or two primitive urges. The image is an amusing one, but it is fast becoming out-of-date. Most men watching this self-consciously "intelligent" film will be appalled by the shallow, stereotypical way in which they are portrayed.

© James Travers 2006

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