The grinding noises you hear are the gears of this labored French comedy straining to keep a ridiculously convoluted narrative moving along.
Merci Docteur Rey! (2002)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted: 21
Fresh: 0
Rotten:21
Average Rating: 3/10
Theatrical Release:Sep 17, 2004 Limited
Synopsis: Depicting a Paris full of madcap surprises and eccentric characters, first-time director Andrew Litvack delivers a star-studded and wacky coming-out farce. Thomas Beaumont is a 23-year-old man who... Depicting a Paris full of madcap surprises and eccentric characters, first-time director Andrew Litvack delivers a star-studded and wacky coming-out farce. Thomas Beaumont is a 23-year-old man who agrees to an unconventional threesome, accepting money to spy on an erotic encounter which turns violent. Now a witness to murder, Thomas encounters further complications when his opera diva mother (Dianne Wiest, PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO, EDWARD SCISSORHANDS) shows up the next day; she has some very unexpected news of his father, whom Thomas was told had died long ago. Now motivated to find the killer of the previous night's rendezvous, our hapless hero must navigate encounters with his very difficult mother; her best friend (New Wave legend Bulle Ogier, GANG OF FOUR, VENUS BEAUTY INSTITUTE); a flaky actress (the flute-voiced Jane Birkin, BLOWUP, JE T'AIME MOI NON PLUS); and various others who populate every strata of Parisian life, all in pursuit of the ever-elusive truth. Also appearing are Vanessa Redgrave (MRS. DALLOWAY), Simon Callow (THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA), and Jerry Hall (BATMAN). [More]
Starring: Dianne Wiest, Vanessa Redgrave, Jane Birkin, Jerry Hall
Starring: Dianne Wiest, Vanessa Redgrave, Jane Birkin, Jerry Hall, Simon Callow, Bulle Ogier
Director: Andrew Litvack
Director: Andrew Litvack
Studio: Regent Releasing
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Reviews for Merci Docteur Rey!
The movie, written and directed by Andrew Litvack, a protégé of Ismail Merchant and James Ivory, strains to be the ne plus ultra of arch, hyper-sophisticated fun, but the laughs are few.
An arch, clumsy effort...not only poorly written but ineptly staged... Mercy!
Merci Docteur Rey, which occasionally works as a passable farce, stoops to the sight gag of vomit.
While the cast of Merci Docteur Rey gives it a good shot, this romp stumbles a bit.
It's as if Litvack tossed all these bad gags, multiple storylines and kooky characters into a blender and hit puree.
What is all too apparent on the screen is a general pointless ineptitude, particularly dire in circumstances which require both material and handling to be done with the most effervescent of skill.
In this comedy of murder, there is exactly one laugh, involving a dress and wallpaper, which is one more than there is of a real human moment or emotion.
There's much ado about very little in this flimsy, fallible Gallic comedy/melodrama which confounds with its complex, voyeuristic incongruity.
This is less a coming-out tale than a showcase for late-middle- aged hysterical divas in flowing caftans to yell, scream and ride roughshod over the young homosexuals who are nominally the movie's center.
With Yank Andrew Litvack pinch-hitting for producers Ismail Merchant and James Ivory, Merci is free of much of that M-I pomposity, replacing it with an unnerving drollness.
It comes off as forced wackiness of the worst kind, at once cloddish and faux-sophisticated.
Lacks the sophistication it needs to be truly effective, hopelessly lost in its unfunny gags and weak plotting.
A horribly mannered, self-conscious film that gets more tiresome as it goes along.
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