Mes meilleurs copains (1989) - film review

Jean-Michel, Richard, Guido, Antoine and Dany have been the best of friends since their wild and wicked adolescence in the late 1960s.  Now in their forties, the five friends come together for a long-awaited reunion with Bernadette Legranbois, the woman who had the greatest impact on their lives, who has since become a major rock star in Canada.   They all decide to spend time together at Richard’s house in the country, to renew their old acquaintances and relive their former dreams.  But things have changed – they are no longer the people they once were.  The time has come to settle a few scores...

Jean-Marie Poiré is best known as the director of such hit film comedies as Le Père Noël est une ordure (1982) and Les Visiteurs (1993), but some of his lesser known films are just as watchable, and perhaps more laudable.  Mes meilleurs copains is one of Poiré’s more serious and best structured films, an engaging and entertaining portrayal of male menopausal angst as experienced by a group of men who make up an unlikely quintet of friends.

Whilst it may not have the obvious box office appeal of some of Poiré’s other comedies, the film shows somewhat more intelligence and insight, in both the writing and direction, than in much of the director’s other work. The characters are well-drawn and believable, each offering a credible and subtly different take on mid-life crisis.  The superlative cast adds greatly to the film’s appeal, with particularly noteworthy contributions from Jean-Pierre Bacri, Philippe Khorsand and Jean-Pierre Darroussin.  The latter’s portrayal of a hyper-cool, slightly stoned-out-of-his-skull guitarist bears a suspicious similarity with Dylan from The Magic Roundabout...

© James Travers 2008

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