Saint Amour (2016)

An effective comedy with incisive dialogues and delirious situations, and a touch of bucolic melancholy. [Full review in Spanish]

A film in which its story becomes a road movie, although it's very humane and with a well achieved character description. [Full review in Spanish]

A rollicking piece on flawed masculinity, this follows three average guys who learn to moderate their egos. The film shells out some tough love. Caricaturing the male stereotype, the story has booze, gluttonous food, fantasy sex and chaotic adventure, as the three launch themselves into a wine tour of France. As expected, many French products and landscapes are showcased. The men meet a series of Amazonian female characters: the impossible strength of these women is an ironic gender role reversal, which will look witty to some, and facile to others, particularly as the women only achieve this status via the bedroom. The men's frailties are however depicted largely without mercy - alcoholism, declining sexuality, self-delusion and lies, public embarrassments, ugliness, slovenliness, precarious income, and the dread of a lonely future. The film also makes astute points about wider European economic threats and regional poverty. You can ride the downbeats in this for the keen observations and the humour; and the monumental Depardieu has not lost his touch. Those hoping to just relax and revel in the men's self-indulgence, or to kindly tut-tut at the unsavoury male behaviours, may find that they also have to sit through some awkward truths.