Espèces menacées

The intertwined lives of people is not really something new under the sun;to name but two , Julien Duvivier ("Sous Le Ciel De Paris" ) and Robert Guédiguian ("La Ville Est Tranquille ") have already made this kind of movie.This one is uneven ,with good moments but with weakenesses too, particularly the ending ..

The most endearing characters are certainly Josephine and her violent husband ; the first sequence takes place just after their wedding (we do not see ,but there must not have been wedding gown,or walking up the aisle,let alone parents ) but when the young husband suggests a guessing game ,one feels that something is wrong in the couple : he compares his bride's daddy to Baloo bear ;the only characters to belong to the working class, the boy gives a bad time to her spouse he keeps on beating ,in spite of the father's intervention .

Their neighbor is a man estranged from his wife ,whose daughter is going to marry a man who could be her grand -father;the scene on the phone is rather funny (Gregory Gadebois gives an effective performance );unfortunately this segment leads nowhere ,except that it proves that love does not know age difference ,which is not exactly new.

The third character's connection with the others is rather tenuous : a dreaming student whose mother is over possessive : her lines are badly written and does not ring true;besides the actress overplays and is almost unbearable.The scene with the hooker on the phone is rubbish.

In a word:uneven.