Broadcast this Friday April 26, 2024 at 9:10 p.m. on Canal+, this film did not really meet with the expected success in theaters. A comedy that is nevertheless worth a look.
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Far behind the boxes Super Mario Bros, the movie And barbiethe French box office unfortunately experienced a number of disappointments in 2023. Marvel broke its teeth there with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania And The Marvels. Competitor DC did barely better with Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. Despite honorable results, the fifth part of‘Indiana Jones and the seventh opus of Impossible mission did not meet with the expected success. As for the large hexagonal cylinders, only Alibi.com 2 or the very mixed Asterix and Obelix: The Middle Kingdom rose to the height ofOppenheimer. Yet with 6 million cumulative entries, the diptych THE Three Musketeers is a relative success, given the scale of the production. Finally, even more surprising, even our popular comedies, often supported by strong headliners, have had great difficulty convincing spectators. Hawaii made a fuss despite its interesting choral cast, while Dany Boon suffered his biggest failure as a director by only bringing together 800,000 curious people, with a film theoretically calibrated for success (Life for real). Even the duo Olivier Nakache and Éric Toledano, another sure bet of the French box office, strangely disappointed with A difficult year. And yet…
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The Pio-Marmaï-Jonathan Cohen-Noémie Merlant trio
The Olivier Nakache-Éric Toledano tandem is a team that wins… alas, not every time. Far from their standards, the 900,000 admissions of their latest film were surprising. A difficult year yet had everything to please on paper, if only for its tempting leading trio: Pio Marmaï-Jonathan Cohen-Noémie Merlant. The first plays Albert, a compulsive buyer over-indebted to the state. The star of The flame as for Bruno, who also constantly lives in the red without ever really working. The two men meet in an association and cross paths with environmental activists, including the very committed Cactus (Noémie Merlant). A scenario in line with the societal and funny cinema characteristic of the duo behind Untouchables. Shunned by the public, it sometimes suffers from a lack of rhythm, but would have deserved better.
A difficult year : between humor and emotion
The characters often constitute one of the great strengths of the cinema of Éric Toledano and Olivier Nakache. Despite a lack of development like that of Mathieu Amalric whose scenes fall a bit like a hair in the soup, A difficult year continues this tradition with modern and lively protagonists. Pio Marmaï and Jonathan Cohen thus form a perfect duo of broken arms who found each other well. They are well supported by the always subtle Noémie Merlant, at the heart of a beautiful romance with one of the two (we’ll leave you the surprise). The two filmmakers do not deny their humorous DNA, but evolve with the times, intelligently using current events, on a more sensitive and moving chord. Mirrored against a background of Waltz in a thousand beats by Jacques Brel, the first and last scenes demonstrate fluid production and editing, leaving nothing to chance. If A difficult year perhaps does not have the emotional power of the best vintages of its directors, it remains a success which surprisingly failed to find its audience in theaters. It’s time to give it a chance.
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