Looking for Hortense (Cherchez Hortense)

2012

Looking for Hortense (Cherchez Hortense)

Critics Consensus

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56%

TOMATOMETER

Total Count: 18

40%

Audience Score

User Ratings: 154
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Movie Info

This film is a bittersweet 'comedie de moeurs' that is French in spirit but universal in appeal. Damien, a Chinese civilization professor, lives with his partner, Iva, a stage director, and their son Noé. The couple's relationship has drifted into routine that has drained it of love. Damien finds himself trapped one day by Iva, who orders him to ask his father, a senior member of the French Council of State, for help in preventing Zorica, a woman Iva knows, from being deported. But Damien and his father don't get on and are barely ever in touch with each other. This dangerous mission throws Damien into a spiral that will turn his life upside down.

Cast

Jean-Pierre Bacri
Isabelle Carré
Kristin Scott Thomas
Claude Rich
Marin Orcand Tourres
Arthur Igual
Jackie Berroyer
Masahiro Kashiwagi
Jérôme Beaujour
Benoît Jacquot
Iliana Lolic
Francis Leplay
Philippe Duclos
Joséphine Derenne
Agathe Bonitzer
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Critic Reviews for Looking for Hortense (Cherchez Hortense)

All Critics (18) | Top Critics (6) | Fresh (10) | Rotten (8)

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Audience Reviews for Looking for Hortense (Cherchez Hortense)

  • Aug 04, 2013
    Damien (Bacri) lectures on Asian culture to French business types looking to gain an advantage in cracking that burgeoning market. His partner, Iva (Thomas), is a theater director in the midst of conducting an affair with her latest production's leading man. When Iva asks Damien to speak to his father (Rich), a judge, about repealing an expulsion order for a friend of her brother, Damien agrees reluctantly. Estranged from his father, fulfilling Iva's request becomes increasingly difficult for Damien, who in the process befriends Aurore (Carre), a young woman who works in a restaurant next door to a bookshop he frequents. The basic set-up of Bonitzer's film is reminiscent of the type of scenario Larry David might spin for an episode of 'Curb Your Enthusiasm'. Stretched out to 100 minutes, however, this simple idea quickly becomes a test of patience, particularly given the poor, dated comedy on show. Bonitzer appears completely out of touch with modern society, mining jokes from topics like homosexuality and immigration as if he were a staff writer on a seventies British sitcom. A scene where Damien wakes up after a night of heavy (or, rather, heavy by French standards) drinking with a young gay Japanese waiter in his bed scales new heights of misjudgement. Had he gone for a straight drama, instead of opting for cheap laughs, Bonitzer could have given us an intriguing film. Bacri is great as the put-upon Damien, as is Thomas, albeit short-changed in her role. The female characters in this film are all woefully written (and all seem to suffer from a nicotine addiction). Iva is the stereotypical cheating wife while Aurore is little more than a young damsel in distress, inexplicably waiting for an aging, out of shape knight like Damien to save her. Despite resembling an alcoholic butcher, Damien is apparently irresistible to young women, and indeed young men. Perhaps the title 'Oh Grandad! The Movie' would be better fitting for the out of touch Bonitzer's latest?
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