HAPPILY EVER AFTER (Ils se marierent et eurent beaucoup
d'enfants)
Reviewed by Harvey S. Karten
Kino International
Grade: B
Directed by: Yvan Attal
Written by: Yvan Attal
Cast: Charlotte Gainsbourgh, Yvan Attal, Alain Chabat,
Emmanuelle Seigner, Alain Cohen, Angie David, Johnny Depp
Screened at: Paris, NYC, 4/12/05
In some countries, polygamy is common and in at least one
South Seas island, polyandry is de rigeuer because of the
shortage of women. The U.S., with its 50% divorce rate and
climbing, believes in serial monogamy, while in parts of Europe
nobody (except the wives) flinches when a man takes a
mistress. "Happily Ever After," known in its French title, "Ils se
marierent et eurent beaucoup d'enfants"), roughly "And They
Lived Happily Ever After"), focuses on a group of men but is
anchored by the mid-life crisis of one fellow and his wife.
Contrary to the idea that European men with mistresses are
universally accepted, the woman is not laid-back (so to speak)
about her husband's infidelities. The movie is a frothy view of
the never-to-be-resolved war between the sexes, which is to say
between two categories of humanity who will forever remain
poles apart culturally.
Writer-director Yvan Attal performs in the role of Vincent,
married to Gabrielle (Charlotte Gainsbourg–who is his wife in
real life), a man whose libidinal antennae twitch when near his
mistress (Angie David). Gabrielle is aware of her man's
cheating heart but says nothing, though she protests each time
Vincent leaves her and their child to play poker or soccer with
the boys–who include Georges (Alain Chabat) and Fred (Alain
Cohen). Among the surprises of Attal's film is that Fred, the
group's only bachelor and one who'd scarcely turn a female
head in Paris, has so many women in his address book that he
has to juggle them as they regularly get him on their cell
phones–to the bemusement of his friends.
Does Yvan Attal, as writer-director rather than as philandering
husband, approve of the mistress business? In one sense, yes,
because without that, there would be no story to add to the Tel-
Aviv-born French regisseur's resume. (He has performed in
"The Interpreter," "And Now...Ladies and Gentlemen," "My Wife
is an Actress" and others.) However he gives ample time to
Nathalie (Emmanuelle Seigner), a feminist who in baiting her
Mercedes-loving husband is another troop in the war between
the sexes. "Happily Ever After" includes one scene that could
be considered nothing less than sexual foreplay: Vincent and
Gabrielle spontaneously engage in a food fight that would
amaze even denizens of New York public middle schoolers,
tossing ketchup, mustard, eggs on each other and they race
about their Paris home. Charlotte Gainsbourg turns in a
stunning performance as a woman who keeps her knowledge a
secret in order to keep their not-necessarily fragile marriage
going. Johnny Depp turns up in a cameo performance that
features a scene of Depp,who, as a customer of Gabrielle's real
estate business, goes up the elevator to see an apartment but
winds up in an endless, surreal trip into the clouds, as Gabrielle
fantasizes an affair with the desirable, English-speaking patron.
Not Rated. 100 minutes © 2005 by Harvey Karten
harveycritic@cs.com
========== X-RAMR-ID: 39673 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 1379532 X-RT-TitleID: 10004509 X-RT-SourceID: 570 X-RT-AuthorID: 1123 X-RT-RatingText: B
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews