The best way to open this film review would be: "and now for something totally different". This 2016 French-Belgian romantic comedy is a totally "out-of-the-ordinary" movie (especially compare to your usual American Hollywood movies). One may also doubt its "fitness" to this blog.... But, overall, as you'll see - I think it does.
The film was directed, co-produced and played mostly by Dominique Abel and Fiona Gordon. The pot is quite simple: Fiona is a young Canadian librarian, has an old aunt, Martha, who lives in Paris. One day Fiona receives a letter from her aunt, which asks her to come to Paris and help her, as she is about to be forced into a nursing home. Fiona stops her life and flies to Paris to save her aunt. However, once she arrives - her aunt is missing - as she ran away from her apartment to avoid her institutionalization. At this stage a comedy of mistakes begins, when Fiona falls into the river Seine, loses all had belonging, meets a homeless man, Dom, (played by Abel), who lives in a tent by the river, who also accidentally finds Fiona's backpack. Things become complicated as Martha - in her attempts to escape the police which is looking for her - also bumps in Dom. As you can see, all these complications can easily lead to a hilarious comedy of mistakes.
So why is it a gerontological movie? Well, the key to the plot is Martha's unwillingness to "accept" the "societal" ruling that she needs to be institutionalized. During the movie there are some excellent anti-aging scenes, which break down the stereotypical conceptions around aging and old age. But I must admit that most of the movie is not about Martha but rather about Fiona and Dom.
This is certainly not a typical comedy, and one needs to come to this movie with a good sense of (European) humor, I laughed - not only because it was funny - but because it was silly and very knowingly did not take itself seriously.
Not a great gerontological movie, but certainly a refresher.... :)
2016
France / Belgium
Directors: Dominique Abel and Fiona Gordon
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_NUOhN7BmM
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