Dépression et des potes (2012)
Directed by Arnaud Lemort

Film Review

There was an irresistible ebullient charm to Arnaud Lemort's first film L'Amour, c'est mieux à deux (2010) (co-directed with Dominique Farrugia) which is singularly lacking in his second.  Dépression et des potes is a lazy attempt at an American-style comedy that looks suspiciously like a half-hearted attempt to clamber aboard the 'buddy movie' bandwagon that has taken off in France in the wake of Marc Esposito's Le Coeur des hommes (2003).  Lemort's debut feature may have been impaired by some misfired gags and an obvious lack of directorial competence but at least it was enthusiastically performed by a likeable cast and had a ring of truth about it.  Its successor is little more than a low grade television movie that looks as if it was cobbled together in someone's lunchbreak.

Given the pedigree of the cast it's surprising how flat and unfunny the film is.  Fred Testot, a talented, very amiable stand-up comedian and comic actor, ought to be in his element, but he is as ill-served by the trite script as his three on-screen buddies, Jonathan Lambert, Arié Elmaleh and Ary Abittan.  All of the characters are dull, overly familiar archetypes, and it's hard to miss the malodorous whiff of misogynism that hangs over the proceedings.  Admittedly, the few worthwhile gags that punctuate this lame commentary on modern living are well fielded but these are just too few and far between to make the film worth watching.  If you weren't depressed before you started watching this derivative, trashy plod-a-thon you will be by the time the end credits roll.

Film Synopsis

Franck has no reason to be unhappy with his life, but he is.  He has everything a man could possibly want to be happy - a nice home, an interesting job, a delicious Brazilian girlfriend.  And yet he is inconsolably and constantly miserable.  Nothing seems to satisfy him these days, not even an expensive holiday in sun-kissed Mauritius.  The first thing he does when he gets back to Paris is to call in on his doctor, who merely tells him what he already knows.  He is chronically depressed.  Naturally, Franck passes this earth-shattering news on to his friends, and they all make an effort to rally round and lift his spirits.  But in doing so they suddenly realise that they are as depressed as he is.  The only way they can overcome their depression is by banding together.  After all, this is what friends are for...