Thursday, 19 May 2005
Qui perd gagne !
Now! Never seen before! Never read again! It's... movie reviews from the past!
(everything after this point was written on 29 June 2004)
Going to see a French comedy is a gamble. There are certain cultural differences in what is considered "very funny," but even the French consider the quality of their comedies to be uneven. Big name stars don't guarantee anything, much as is the case in the U.S.
So, it was very appropriate that the first French comedy that I've seen in ages was Qui perd gagne ! - and that it also happened to have a big-name star (Thierry Lhermitte).
Hmm, what else to say... It's a film about a genius gambler, a scientist who comes up with some way of predicting random numbers, and the circus around it all. The gambler (Lhermitte) is employed by the police to help prove that the scientist is just pulling a con.
Basically, it's your run-of-the-mill setup for supposedly mind-bendingly clever twists. The problem is, the twists are there but not mind-bending, and the comedy gets lost beneath the "oh-aren't-we-clever"-ness. Oh, and if I never see Thierry Lhermitte naked again, it'll be too soon. That goes double for seeing him in the grunting throes of what he simulates as passion.
The only thing that really caught my attention was a major plot flaw: If you discover a way to predict "random" events and numbers, it's hardly going to go by quietly. Even if your pitifully small press conference is full of doubters, there's a little American organization called the NSA who'd be very interested in talking with you. See, random numbers are the core of any encryption process, and whoever can crack them the fastest is the one who has the upper hand. Some government would have "disappeared" you in some way before you even thought of a way to remove "obscure professor" from in front of your name.
It's hardly surprising that I just don't make it to see French comedies anymore; there are just too many other films on my list that have higher priority. Even foreign films that look none too promising end up pushing the Frenchies further down, with the result that they eventually leave the theatres before I get around to seeing them. I guess, if nothing else, Qui perd gagne ! served as a good reminder as to why that happens.
2 / 5 - no real cleverness, no real fun; if you want that (and casinos), see Ocean's Eleven instead (the remake or the original)