Tel père telle fille (2007) - film review

At 30, Bruno knows that his best years are behind him.  Once a successful pop musician, he is now reduced to writing lyrics for songs to earn a meagre crust.  Out of the blue, he receives a telephone call from a former girlfriend he hasn’t seen for fourteen years.  She announces that she has a 13-year-old daughter, Nancy, and that he happens to be her father.  Bruno reluctantly agrees to see his offspring and his initial indifference turns to paternal concern when he sees the direction in which Nancy’s life is heading...

Whilst perhaps not as daring and intense as it deserves to be, Tel père telle fille is an acceptable début feature from director Olivier De Plas.  The film is based on the novel Teen Spirit by Virginie Despentes, who is best known as the author of the book Baise-moi and director of its highly controversial film adaptation.

Whilst De Plas’s direction errs a little too often on the side of caution and perhaps relies too much on cinematic cliché, he succeeds in making a film that is thoughtful and engaging, thanks largely to the support of  his lead actors.  Vincent Elbaz convincingly portrays a man who is trapped in an extended adolescence, from which an unexpected fatherhood offers the only hope of escape.  In her first film appearance, Daisy Broom shows great promise with her realistic portrayal of a rebellious teenager struggling to make sense of her life. 

Tel père telle fille effectively marries two familiar themes – that of midlife crisis and teenage rebellion – but adds little to the plethora of films that have explored these themes previously.  In terms of style and content, it is reminiscent of  Olivier Assayas’s early films, but without that inspired touch and throat-ripping sense of anguish which can make an audience sit up and take note.  Has French cinema really anything else to tell us about adolescent angst and the male menopause?

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