Dis-moi oui... (1995) - film review

One night, a twelve-year old girl enters the life of 30-something paediatrician Stéphane.  The girl, Eva, claims that she ran away from home after having been beaten by her wicked stepmother.  Stéphane agrees to let the girl stay in his apartment but soon discovers that she has a damaged brain and has run away from the hospital where she was being treated.  Eva is obsessed with Stéphane and, despite the difference in their ages, the two fall in love…

Convincing and poignant performances from Jean-Hugues Anglade and Julia Maraval just about rescue this film, a wishy-washy romantic drama, and prevent it from degenerating into the mushy sentimentality that you expect to engulf it at any moment.  Some will find the idea of a middle-aged man and a pre-teenage girl falling in love tasteless, if not downright disturbing, but director Alexandre Arcady manages to give the relationship the right perspective, even if such an idealistic view of romantic love does ultimately feel a little contrived and unreal.  The film’s credibility takes a sharp dive in its last twenty minutes, from which it fails to recover, as cliché is piled upon cliché and the presence of a sick bag or a remote control with a fast-forward button becomes an essential accessory.

© James Travers 2005

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