Mon frère se marie is a French film comedy-drama first released in 2006, directed by Jean-Stéphane Bron.  The film stars Jean-Luc Bideau, Aurore Clément and Cyril Troley.  Our overall rating for this film is: good.


For twenty years, Vietnamese refugee Vinh has lived with his adopted middle-class family in Switzerland.  By the time he decides to get married, the family has long since broken up.  His adopted father and mother are barely on speaking terms, and the relationship between himself and his two adopted siblings is uncomfortable.  When Vinh’s mother, still in Vietnam, writes to say that she intends to attend the wedding, the members of his adopted family agree to put aside their differences and pretend to be the perfect Swiss family.  Things start out well enough, but on the day of the wedding, the strain of the pretence becomes too much...

This tragicomic portrait of a dysfunctional Swiss family struggling to present a face to the world that is the opposite to the gruesome reality is the first fictional film from Jean-Stéphane Bron, who has made a name for himself in the arena of film documentary.  Whilst the film is slightly marred by a lack of self-confidence on the part of the director, which prevents him from pushing the drama into some interesting places (and hence revealing why his characters behave as they do in a more subtle fashion), it is a strangely appealing work which offers a depiction of a fragmented family that is both comical and deeply moving.

Stylistically, the film is somewhat uneven, constantly shifting its perspective, one minute farce, the next minute naturalistic drama, with the narrative broken up by inserts in which one of the characters "interviews" the other members of his family (a device that is now used so often that it feels horribly clichéd, even if is used well).  Fortunately, some convincing performances – particularly from Jean-Luc Bideau and Aurore Clément – and a good script more than compensate for the film’s deficiencies in other areas.  The film is at its most poignant and expressive in its moments of calm and reflection, such as the last few minutes of the film where the family, reduced to contemplative silence having been drained by the intense psychodrama that preceded, achieves some kind of reconciliation and unity.

© James Travers 2007

Write a review for this film...


What do you think of this film?

Recent DVD releases