À fond (2016)
Directed by Nicolas Benamou

Film Review

After notching up two hits with Babysitting (2014) and its sequel Babysitting 2 (2015) (in collaboration with Philippe Lacheau), director Nicolas Benamou clearly had his sights set on another box office triumph with this energetic action comedy, which looks as it may have escaped from the Luc Besson stable.  The film certainly has a great deal in common with Besson's high octane Taxi films, and serves up the same kind of bravura action stunts and puerile humour, with a comparable lack of substance in the plot and characterisation.  À fond looks as if it is targeted exclusively at speed junkies and computer game addicts - it is hardly suitable for family viewing and for a grown-up of above average IQ its appeal wears thin within about five minutes, carried off by a deluge of predictable clichés and crude humour.

As a comedy, À fond is a total disaster.  Nicolas Benamou and his fellow screenwriters resort to the cheapest of gags and even then manage to run out of ideas before the film has hit the halfway mark, after which the lame comedy just tapers into abject silliness.  The characters are not only unconvincing stereotypes, they are one dimensional to a fault, and a dull, unlikeable bunch at that, even though they are played by quite an impressive crowd - José Garcia, Caroline Vigneaux, André Dussollier and Florence Foresti are all fine comedy actors, given the right material.  It is a feature of film comedy today that the worse the script is, the more the actors tend to overact.  À fond shows this to a horrifying degree - the performances are as dreadful as the script, and that's saying something.

What prevents this idiotic film from being a total write-off is that it just about works as an action movie.  Realised for real, without the aid of green screen and digital effects, many of the stunts genuinely do take your breath away - and this no doubt is where Nicolas Benamou's true talents lie, as an action film director.  Unfortunately, a series of well-choreographed action scenes is not enough to carry a ninety minutes feature by itself.  Without a single character on board the demonic vehicle to engage our sympathies and with some members of the cast (Garcia and Dussollier in particular) going way, way over the top at the least provocation, it's hard to see this infernal journey through to the end.

Film Synopsis

The departure for the summer holidays is always a miserable experience in France, but for one French family who set out on their annual excursion to sunnier climes a nightmare of unimaginable proportion looms as they hit the highway in their brand-new people carrier.  Tom, the father, reckons he is smart to start the journey at the crack of dawn.  This way, they should be able to avoid the worst of the traffic.  With his wife Julie pregnant Tom can do without the stress of being stuck in a traffic jam for half the day.  So, having set the vehicle's speed control to 130 kilometres an hour, Tom and his five happy holidaymakers begin their journey, confident that nothing can go wrong.  Tom's faith in modern technology proves to be totally misplaced.  When he tries to decelerate his car he finds he can't - the speed seems to be stuck at the level he set it to, and nothing he does can alter it.  Alerted by the fact that a car with a mind of its own is chewing up the highway, the police hurry after it - but what can they do?  All that Tom can do is to steer the motor vehicle from Hell and hope it runs out of fuel before it crashes.  Unfortunately, up ahead of him is the mother of all traffic jams...