100 kilos d'étoiles

A story of friendship, vulnerability, passion, science, love and teens. Simple, at first sigh, touching in profound sense, eulogy of freedom and self acceptance. Not exactly the story, large puzzle of subplots is significant but the acting. A good film about not be perfect but be together in a trip, action and various situations defining powerful connections and the fair answers. Four girls and their perfect world.

This movie was labeled "feel good" and I'm not sure it's an accurate depiction of it ;it's not a comedy ,the young teenage girl 's dream is to become an astronaut but her dream may never come true ;she seems to live on Jupiter,where she would weigh 250 kg (=550 lb) and the story begins with a lecture on the solar system by herself : actually she wants to escape from the good old Earth where she is not a really happy person : she's extremely good at physics and maths ,but she's overweight (check the title which sums it all in a very succint style )and her teacher tells her that to fly to the stars may be only a dream .If she is obese it's congenital , her mother has the same problem :there's a moving scene in which the husband tells her love to his wife ,even though she does not fit the female canons of beauty ,without using the usual "the- real- beauty- is -inside- you" cliché ;this unfortunate mother has a strong feeling of guilt.

Obsessed by her weight, the teenager becomes anorexic and is fed through a tube ;with three other patients she flees to Toulouse ,where a competition of young scientists is to take place :her invention is a pilot balloon.A revealing fact,they are the only girls among the contenders !This depiction of female friendship is uncompromising and does not pass over in silence the conflicts ,without the presence of a single boy ,no small feat.

Of course ,there are some drawbacks (the obligatory song in English :haven't we got good French songs?) and the screenplay is sometimes disjointed .

But all is forgiven when you see this dreamlike scene where the team launches their balloon en route to the stars ,which seems to take the foursome away with it.

NB :The leading actress had already been cast in a short ,"princesse" ,when she was a child.

Comedy? Where is the comedy? It is a drama with many unlikelyhoods in the plot at least funny.

Brilliant screenplay, brilliant acting, brilliant directing.

Go see it!!!

Peter van Wijk.