Accompanied by a bumbling cameraman, a clever journalist investigates the mysterious past of the favorite presidential candidate.
Relegated to covering football after an investigation that could have embarrassed the channel that employs her, Mademoiselle Pove (Cécile de France) is more than delighted when her boss (Philippe Uchan) asks her to cover the presidential election . So far without incident, the campaign of the favorite candidate, the economist Pierre-Henry Mercier (Albert Dupontel), has just gained new momentum after his car caused the explosion of a gas pipe.
Convinced of having known this newcomer to politics when the two were in high school, the journalist sets out to investigate Mercier’s past. She then discovers that fervent supporters of the left secretly support this right-wing candidate. Miss Pove is not at the end of her surprises when Gus (Nicolas Marié), her faithful and awkward cameraman, tells her that Mercier and his bodyguard, Lior (Uri Gavriel), are exchanging words in Romanian. But what is this son of a good family hiding?
Recognized for his offbeat, sometimes irreverent humor, his innate sense of dialogue, his careful staging, Albert Dupontel (9 months firm, Goodbye up there, Goodbye idiots) signs, as his eighth feature film, Second round, a political fable in which he plays a man ready to die for his ideals. By turns stoic and touching, as if he were sometimes borrowing the mask of Buster Keaton, sometimes that of Charlie Chaplin, the filmmaker gives pride of place to Cécile de France, his partner in In balance (2015), by Denis Dercourt, and to Nicolas Marié, his favorite actor.
With a pleasure that is as contagious as it is delectable, the two actors, who form a tireless and hilarious tandem, exchange the most hilarious repartees of the film at a pace reminiscent of a machine gun burst. The problem is that at any moment, their antics risk overshadowing the many twists and turns in store for this crazy comedy where Dupontel is interested in social determinism, family tragedies and the corridors of power.
Evoking an improbable crossover between The President’s Men (1976), by Alan J. Pakula, and the world of Monty Python, Second round amuses more than it convinces with its fast-paced story, in which we fight for a better world where bees can forage in peace. True to himself, Albert Dupontel signs a poetic finale where his caustic humor shines through.
Indoors
Comedy
Second round
Albert Dupontel
Cécile de France, Nicolas Marié, Albert Dupontel
1:35 a.m.