Albert est méchant (2004)

Albert est méchant is a French film comedy first released in 2004, directed by Hervé Palud.  The film stars Christian Clavier, Michel Serrault, Arielle Dombasle, Priscilla and Bernard Farcy.  It has also been released under the title: Mean Old Albert.  Our overall rating for this film is: very poor.


When his father, the celebrated author Jo, dies, Patrick Lechat assumes that he will automatically inherit a fortune.  Unfortunately, it is not to be.  Jo has left his entire estate to his half-brother, Albert Moulinot, a reclusive old man who lives alone on an island in Dordogne with a wild boar as his only companion.   Desperate for some easy money, Patrick visits Albert to try to persuade him to offer him a share of his father’s inheritance.  To his surprise, Patrick discovers that Albert has no interest in money and agrees to give him the entire inheritance – on the sole condition that he accompanies Patrick to Paris to sign the necessary legal documents.  Patrick’s nightmare has just begun…

This lowbrow family comedy gets off to a promising start but within a matter of minutes its failings become all too apparent.  The plot is instantly predictable and rapidly degenerates into a rather silly routine comedy, with the film’s three stars – Clavier, Dombasle and Serrault – dropping lazily into their stereotypical character grooves.   Like many of Hervé Palud’s earlier films – for example, the risible Un indien dans la ville (1994) – the comic situations are so idiotic and contrived, the characterisation so hackneyed and shallow, that the whole ghastly thing is viscerally painful to watch.

© James Travers 2006

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