Divorces! (2009)
Directed by Valérie Guignabodet

Film Review

Valérie Guignabodet's eagerly anticipated follow-up to her hit comedy Mariages! (2004) delivers far less than it promises and ultimately drowns in a sea of world-weary clichés, whatever humour it contains being stifled by a horrible tendency towards fatuous caricature.  Yes, part of the reason for the film's failure is the replacement of the leads Jean Dujardin and Mathilde Seigner with the far less bankable François-Xavier Demaison and Pascale Arbillot, but this isn't the main factor at play.  So lacking in original ideas is Guignabodet's script that it would have been an impossibly hard sell whoever was cast in the lead roles, and her direction is equally lacking in inspiration, with none of the flair that made Mariages! such an amiable romp.  This is a disaster, pure and simple.

Film Synopsis

Valentine and Alex are a happily married couple.  Both are divorce lawyers who have made a career of resolving the marital breakdowns of others as amicably as possible.  Their relationship appears as solid as a rock, until the day a spot of marital infidelity intrudes and smashes it to pieces.  So much for an amicable separation.  This is outright war!