Gérard Lanvin (who plays himself here) begins filming a major Hollywood film on the landing of Allied troops in Provence in 1944. By a twist of fate, he meets Momo, a local swimming pool specialist, notorious crab eater and, above all, fan absolute of the actor. Of course, Lanvin, a good player with his admirers, will offer him to come and see the shooting and Momo will take the opportunity to rush into the breach.
There are comedies that we watch for fun, others that we simply watch to pass the time and others where we watch the time pass. I love what you do belongs to this third category. All the big springs are there, gags gesticulating at the minute regulatory emotion. Yes, it’s all there. Except humor.
The principle of the film is reminiscent of the episode ofcall my agent dedicated to Gérard Lanvin, less success. It must be said that Philippe Guillard’s model for this new feature film, for which he signs the direction and the screenplay, is not the excellent series on a star agency, but The ball, another two-man comedy starring Gérard Lanvin and Benoît Poelvoorde, whose greatest merit is its distribution. Conclusion: not really the best idea that Guillard had.
We will admit that we did not have high hopes for the script from the one who co-wrote the plump popular comedies Camping and Disco. The bad omens spoke true. The jokes fly too low to reach the height of the target and the script reversals are neither original nor credible. The humor is fine as coarse salt and does not clash with the gaggle of French comedies featuring more comedians than professional actors. This time’s comedian, Artus, makes a fuss of it without managing to tear a smile from us. We have to wait for the end credits to finally hear his only good valve.
For his part, our beloved Antoine Bertrand plays – to his great displeasure – the Quebecer on duty, with all the clichés that implies: lumberjacks, bears, tabarnak, Céline and others (we told you, jokes don’t fly high). As for the Caesarized Gérard Lanvin, he is neither bad nor at the top of his game. We are rather sorry for him to find himself there and we can’t wait to see the legendary actor with his checkered filmography in a film worthy of the name.
Need a shot of adrenaline
When a script is bad, sometimes the film makes up for it with a bold direction. This is not the case here either. As bland as possible, it would really need a shot of adrenaline to gain dynamism and originality. Even the music is vitamin deficient. And to wrap up this failure, the photography looks like a mid-range TV series, pale as a rose water drama. If there is one genre that deserves brilliant photography, it is comedy.
We will at least keep in mind some pretty overall plans of the Provençal landscape, which seem to have been sponsored by the tourist office of the region.
French cinema would have done well without I love what you do, comedy with stale panache. Honestly, we would have even preferred to see the famous war film being filmed.