Les Hommes préfèrent les grosses (1981) - film review

When her fiancé walks out on her, the frumpish Lydie has no choice but to find a flat mate to share her expensive apartment.  Her plan is to find someone who is even less physically attractive than she is, to give her a chance of finding another man.  The scheme backfires when the ugly woman who originally agrees to share her flat drops out and suggests a replacement: an attractive model named Eva.  The latter has no difficulty  attracting men, much to the chagrin of an increasingly distraught Lydia…

Les Hommes préfèrent les grosses was the third film to be directed by Jean-Marie Poiré, and is arguably the first which is instantly recognisable as a film from this director.  The madcap comic situations, great visual jokes, eccentric characterisation, and of course the enjoyably  O.T.T. performances, are all essential ingredients of that distinctively Poiré-esque brand of comedy.  Admittedly, this film is less rip-roaringly funny, and far less slick than the director’s subsequent hits – Le Père Noël est une ordure  (1982), Les Visiteurs (1993) – but a spirited performance from Josiane Balasko (who co-authored the script) makes it a diverting and enjoyable piece of no-nonsense comedy.

© James Travers 2005

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