Charles and Lucie are a fiftyish couple (apparently childless) living in the northern suburbs of Paris. Charles was an antique dealer. He went bankrupt long ago and is now reduced to sell the few remaining family possessions; he ekes out a meager living as a concierge. He dreams about winning the lottery. Lucie had some success as a chanteuse in her youth, but she is now reduced to take menial (and sometimes humiliating) jobs such as cleaning up after a lecherous old man in a wheelchair. Charles and Lucie's relation has suffered under such stress, although some of the old feelings remain.
One day they are approached by a courtly gentleman, a law clerk working for lawyer M. De La Madriguière (Spanish speakers will catch the joke). They are told they Lucie has inherited from a distant relative a vast seaside estate in the resort town of Hyères, on the Riviera not far from Marseille. There are other perks, such as a lifetime pension. They are provided with a flashy car and drive in search of the mansion. Things don't go as expected, and they are plunged in a series of episodes in and around Marseille. Some of these adventures are dark, other funny and whimsical, still others in the domain of fairy tales. Forced to live by their wits and occasionally helped by strangers, their waning relation strenghtens; love is reborn in adversity. Finally, everything falls into place via a substantial deus ex machina and the couple discovers to their surprise that their tribulations are of interest to others.
I liked this movie with some reservations. There are too many mawkish songs and the script has weak points (for one, the happening that propels the plot presupposes an out-of-this-world naiveté from Charles and Lucie) but if the movie pleads fairy tale some of these objections can be put aside.
