Tout le plaisir est pour moi (2004) - film review

Louise is an independent modern woman who knows what she wants and knows how to get it.  She has a job she enjoys and a boyfriend, François, who satisfies her other feminine needs.  Then, one day, some mean spirited Celestial agent throws a spanner into the workings of the well-oiled machine that is her life.   François no longer manages to arouse her in bed.  Disaster!  Convinced she has lost her clitoris, Louise visits a sex specialist, a sex shop and an African spiritualist, in an increasingly desperate attempt to regain that essential part of her femininity...

Tout le plaisir est pour moi is the kind of film that only a woman – and a woman with balls – would dare to make.  Films which openly address the subject of female sexuality without collapsing into a fetid heap of trite clichés are few and far between, which makes Isabelle Broué’s taboo-busting comedy more interesting than it perhaps merits.  Some will no doubt find the film tacky and vulgar, but Broué’s sympathetic treatment of her subject gives it some charm and appeal.    

On the plus side, the film is very well cast, particularly the leads.  Marie Gillain and Julien Boisselier are two very likeable and able performers who are perfectly suited for this kind of light comedy-drama which has a serious underbelly.  Gillain succeeds in making her slightly obnoxious egoistical character sympathetic, although Boisselier’s portrayal is more convincing.  There are also some great contributions from the supporting cast, particularly Brigitte Roüan and Tsilla Chelton.
    
The film offers one or two good jokes, but unfortunately much of the humour is of the kind that would make the owner of a Parisian brothel blush, and the worse the jokes are, the more often they are repeated.  It’s a film that manages to be both mildly entertaining and mildly offensive, and you can never be quite sure whether you like it or loathe it.  It is also mildly depressing, since it depicts a world in which the most important thing is the mindless pursuit of pleasure, and the real basis of human relationships – a little thing called love – is somewhat devalued, if not overlooked altogether.

© James Travers 2008

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