Deuxième quinzaine de juillet (2000) - film review

Monique is surprised when her weak-willed and indecisive partner Félix takes the initiative by planning the summer holidays one year.  The couple will swap their cramped city apartment for a villa in the countryside.  The dream soon turns into a nightmare, however.  In addition to being burdened with a troublesome nephew and the boss’s wayward dog, Félix and Monique discover that their holiday home is in a dilapidated state and in the middle of a noisy campsite.  The couple try to make the best of things, but then Félix is drawn into an affair with a teenage girl…

Holidays going badly wrong is a recurring theme in French cinema, and whilst there have been a few reasonably good films of this ilk, the majority follow a familiar formula involving irritating children, bad weather, relationship meltdown and extra-marital affairs.  Deuxième quinzaine de juillet belongs squarely to this latter category, a good-natured but hardly original comedy-drama which is handicapped by a lacklustre script and some inexperienced direction (although, in all fairness, this is Christophe Reichert’s first film).

Michèle Bernier and Zinedine Soualem work well together as the stereotypical domineering wife and weak, immature husband, with Soualem showing great promise as a comic former in some of the film’s lighter moments.  However, their on-screen relationship is so evidentially a caricature, like so much of the film, that very little actually rings true.  The plot is generally as unconvincing as the characterisation, and this is mainly down to some weak dialogue rather than the acting.  There are a few moments of great comedy, and a few of real sincerity and tenderness, but these are cruelly diminished by the awkward narrative style and a general lack of discipline in the direction and scripting.

© James Travers 2005

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