Associés contre le crime... (2012)
Directed by Pascal Thomas

Film Review

Any film in which Catherine Frot is smacked repeatedly on the bottom by André Dussollier has to be worth seeing.  Unfortunately, this is the highpoint of Pascal Thomas's latest Agatha Christie-themed comedy, a rambling affair which has difficulty holding itself together, despite some promising trains of thought and a plethora of inspired (and frankly bizarre) comedy set-pieces.  This is Frot and Dussollier's third outing as Prudence and Bélisaire Beresford (based on Christie's redoubtable amateur sleuths Tuppence and Tommy Beresford), the sequel to Mon petit doigt m'a dit... (2005) and Le Crime est notre affaire (2008).  The plot (what there is of it) is snatched from the short story The Case of the Missing Lady, first published in Agatha Christie's Partners in Crime anthology in 1929, although you'd need a very large magnifying glass and quite a bit of imagination to detect any similarity between the two.

Ever since he delivered the definitive modern big screen Agatha Christie adaptation with L'Heure zéro (2007), Pascal Thomas seems to have increasingly less respect for the esteemed Queen of Crime, and Associés contre le crime... is so far removed from Christie's whodunit concept that you wonder why Thomas bothered to give her a credit at all.  Any intrigue, mystery or suspense that may have been in the original short story goes out the window, and in their place is a confused but generally amiable comedy run-around which looks as if it may have been cooked up by Hergé (the creator of Tintin) and Peter Sellers whilst under the influence of mind altering drugs.  There is certainly more Jacques Clouseau in the film than Miss Marple, and so much of the humour is so weird and brazenly politically incorrect that you can't help wondering who the film is targeted at (ageing Agatha Christie-obsessed rockers?).  At its heart, the film appears to be a light-hearted satire on our obsession with staying young - if Thomas had stuck with this theme and explored it in more depth he might have taken less of a beating from the critics (who were no doubt inspired by the bottom spanking scene);  instead what we get is a rudderless comedy that goes off in all directions without much of a clue as to what it is meant to be about.  Yes, come to think of it, it does sound a bit like Death on the Nile...

Associés contre le crime... may be the least well constructed of Pascal Thomas's Agatha Christie films to date, but it does at least deliver plenty of laughs, although the film does take a long time to get into its stride and some of the gags die of exhaustion and shame before they reach their punch line.  On the plus side, the chemistry between André Dussollier and Catherine Frot is as intoxicating as ever and, more than anything, it is the relationship between their characters that provides the substance to this film; everything else (bar the boozing baby gag) is really just window dressing.  The dependable, down-to-Earth Dussollier could not be more different from the excitable, endlessly feisty Frot, but they spark off one another as well as any other great comedy duo you can think of (Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy spring instantly to mind).

There is a delicious irony in the idea of Catherine Frot playing a character who is pursuing someone who has - apparently - discovered the elixir of life.  If anyone has already found the secret of eternal youth it is assuredly Mademoiselle Frot...  Asthmatic and slightly doddery in places, Associés contre le crime... is unlikely to end up as everyone's all-time comedy classic, but thanks to its two indefatigable leads and some mind-boggling excursions into the strange and surreal, not to mention the aforementioned bottom smacking scene, it manages to justify its existence.  However, as I write this (by moonlight in an old, dark house that creaks and trembles in anticipation of some foul deed) I can just hear someone with the initials A.C. spinning frantically in her grave and hissing a lament that sounds uncannily like: "Come back Margaret Rutherford - all is forgiven...

Film Synopsis

Bélisaire Beresford could not be happier when his wife Prudence decides that their amateur sleuthing days are over.  Now they can look forward to a long and peaceful retirement.  But whilst Bélisaire takes up painting and other leisurely activities, Prudence still has a hankering after adventure and cannot resist being lured back into her old habits when she learns that a rich Russian heiress has gone missing.  Bélisaire has no choice but to go after Prudence as she throws herself into her latest adventure, which leads them to a Swiss beauty clinic for the seriously wealthy.  Before they know it, they are on the trail of a mysterious scientist who appears to have discovered the secret of eternal youth...