À boire (2004) - film review

Pierre-Marie Archimbault suffers from acute alcoholism.  This isn’t only ruining his health and his bank balance; it is also destroying his marriage and his career, as a doctor.  When his wife finally throws him out of the family home one Christmas, he heads off for a ski resort, where he hopes to throw off his fatal addiction.  Not long after his arrival, he suffers a head injury when the world’s most inept skier, Seb Abd Al Abbas, collides with him.  A third person is caught up in the accident, Inès Larue.  The latter is shocked when she learns that her fiancé has disappeared, leaving her with a hotel bill that she cannot pay.  Will Pierre-Marie or Seb come to her rescue – or will she have to sleep with the hotel manager...?

Whatever appeal this chaotic comedy has wears exceedingly thin after the first twenty minutes or so – in spite of its attractive cast and the fact that it was directed by Marion Vernoux, the director of such popular films as Love, etc. (1996) and Reines d’un jour (2001).  The main failing with the film is that little effort appears to have go into defining the main characters – all come across as dull, rather unsympathetic caricatures who just seem to have been randomly thrown into a story that has next to no structure.  The seemingly endless repetition of some pretty crass comedy routines doesn’t improve matters.  Maybe this is one of those films that looks better after you have knocked back a few large measures of vodka...

© filmsdefrance.com 2008

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