In the obstetrics department of a Parisian hospital, four couples and a trio present themselves simultaneously for the birth of a child. But their journey to arrive at this expected moment is anything but normal. Fortunately, the hospital staff, including midwife Dominique and Dr.r Antoine, are here!
Posted at 12:30 p.m.
Taken from excerpts from outdated documentaries, the first images of the film, couples of animals filmed in the process of reproducing, as if we had to be reminded that this goes back to the dawn of time, sets the tone. The bad tone to say it all.
The levity of this “good” joke will be reproduced countless times in this choral comedy that is practically tasteless in every way.
Of course, faced with such a proposal, you have to let your guard down, tell yourself that you are in a burlesque comedy and that you have to take it that way. But the addition of the unlikely situations on which the script relies very strongly made us want to abandon ship more than once.
Here, then, we are treated to a company president who gives birth while holding a highly strategic meeting to send a Qatari satellite with a French rocket into space. The referee of an important soccer match who, learning at halftime that he is going to be a dad following a one-night stand, is impatient to see the game drag on. A specialist in endurance sports runs across France, on horseback, in a canoe, to join his wife.
On paper, it’s still fine. On screen, it doesn’t work at all. We stay cool in the face of these improbable situations. The choral film is an exercise in precision that requires perfect acting from the actors and exceptional editing to keep the rhythm. Here, unfortunately, this is not the case. And it is not the surprise presence of a very big name in the cast that will save the day.
This fragmented story is obviously moved by lines of convergence towards the maternity ward of a hospital where the midwife Dominique (Josiane Balasko) and the doctor Antoine (Nicolas Maury, well known for his role of Hervé in the series call my agent) are colleagues at loggerheads. However, the passage where they finally find common ground is based on a revelation so heavy that it unbalances the rest of the story.
Thus go the first two thirds of this film which will not go down in history. The last third, fortunately, is much nicer. With the birth of each child, a form of tenderness sets in, acts of love where the members of the cast are much more convincing than in the first part.
In theaters from February 7
Comedy
It’s life
Julian Rambaldi
With Josiane Balasko, Léa Drucker, Nicolas Maury
1:39