It is also a gangster film with an American (or rather, French trying to pass as American) sauce. A cross between John Hughes in a blacker than pink version and Quentin Tarantino with marshmallow.
Adaptation of the novel Beating Hearts by Neville Thompson, transposed into a small coastal town in the north of France, phew love tells the story of an improbable and stagnant adolescent love between Clotaire (Malik Frikah) and Jackie (Mallory Wanecque), which persists as best it can until adulthood… despite major obstacles.
I’m not giving anything away: we understand this from the first sequences of the film.
François Civil and Adèle Exarchopoulos embody these characters in their mid-twenties, steeped in the archetype: Clotaire “Racaille” is a delinquent beaten by his father; Jacqueline is a melancholic who lost her mother in a car accident.
Between them, the teenage love at first sight does not fade, despite the years and the forced separations. What wouldn’t we do for a bad boy who breaks faces…
Lasting 2 hours 46 minutes, this film which moves from cliché to cliché could – and should – have lasted an hour less, at least. Audrey Diwan (The event) collaborated on the screenplay. In his place, I wouldn’t leave that in my CV, so much so that Gilles Lellouche feels the obvious and annoying need to demonstrate his cinematographic grammar.
-He gives the impression of a young beginner who is practicing his skills, by multiplying the falsely original shots and the eye-catching effects. phew love is a predictable and complacent work in its violence as well as in its desire to draw tears.
A pizza with blue flower cheese (cheesythe Anglos would say) tailor-made to melt hearts.
phew love is presented in the cinema.
“Phew Love”, trailer (VVS Films)
In the credits
- Cote: 4/10
- Titre: phew love
- Genre: Drama
- Director: Gilles Lellouche
- Cast: François Civil, Adèle Exarchopoulos, Malik Frikah
- Duration: 2h46
Belgium
