L'esprit de famille

"L'esprit de famille" takes a harrowing subject and gives it a thoroughly irrelevant "feel good" treatment .

Even the trick of 'the dead who comes back to straighten the matter out " ,namely problems in the family or others has been used and used and used,from the marvelous "beyond tomorrow" (1940) to "ghost" (1990)to......you name it.

As I wrote the passing of a close relative is a heartrending experience for everyone in a family. It needs either an intimate treatment or a burlesque witty one,the latter being the most difficult to handle ;it takes a writer's genius .

"L'esprit de famille " registered the latter desire and winds up with all the clichés around .Highbrow Alexandre writes books you read on the beach and throw away afterward (one is granted an extract of his harlequin romance style) ; of course the "dad you were never here ,always around the world when I was left on my own " reproach is de rigueur ,and if it were not enough , Cat Stevens ' beautiful "father and son" is heard twice ,the second time over "moving pictures" which prove that "life goes on for the better" ;and anyway everybody knows that there are no songs in French dealing with the father/son relationship!

The second brother is more interested in his rugby team ;of course , we're told of the jealousy of this sibling for this intellectual (?) writer .The mom ,a false one-eyed matronly woman , wants to sell the family home but her offsprings do not agree (the ponderous gag of the furniture).

The ghost of the father who intervenes to give pieces of advice -no one but Alexandre can see- becomes tiring and boring in the long run .

Too bad for Berléand and Balasko, who,left to their own devices ,ham it up : they chose the wrong film. It's a far cry from director Besnard's marvelous "le goût des merveilles".