Le Complexe du kangourou (1986) - film review

Loïc, a Parisian artist in his mid-thirties, prefers to burn his paintings rather than sell them before he has perfected his talent.  He earns a crust selling roast chestnuts and shares an apartment with a Polish woman he married to give her residency rights in France.  He dreams of starting a family with his girlfriend Odile, but he knows that he is sterile and so this can never be.  One day, he runs into an old flame, Claire, who, by chance has an infant son.    Loïc does a quick calculation and realises that Claire must have conceived whilst she was living with him.  In which case...

For those familiar with Pierre Jolivet’s dark and very stylish thrillers, Le Complexe du kangourou will come as something of a surprise – a gentle, downbeat comedy revolving around that old perennial favourite, the male menopause.   Roland Giraud gives a sympathetic and convincing portrayal of a middle-aged man pining for fatherhood, reminiscent of the role he had just played in Coline Serreau’s 3 hommes et un couffin (1985).    Jolivet avoids the obvious clichés and banalities that usually infect this kind of film and gives us an engaging little comedy that is fresh and original, albeit somewhat less inspired and compelling than much of his later work.

© James Travers 2008

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