Anyone who dismisses foreign films as too abstract or intellectual should see this one; it functions no differently than any American comedy. (By American comedy, I'm speaking of movies like the better Coen Brothers or Woody Allen comedies and not mass-produced garbage like "White Chicks".) Many times I completely forgot it was in French and that I was reading subtitles.
Daniel Auteuil is great in this charming film. His sad-sack loser is reminiscent of William H. Macy's most famous roles, or perhaps Jack Lemmon in "The Apartment".
Everything goes wrong for François Mignon. Neither his wife, who left him two years before, nor his teenage son will have anything to do with him. He is ignored at work, and finds out through the grapevine that he has been fired.
His next-door neighbor talks him out of suicide and comes up with a plan to save his job: if Mignon pretends to be gay, the company will not want to look homophobic by firing him.
This plan works perfectly, and Mignon is thrown into a number of increasingly ridiculous situations, now that he is reputed to be gay.
The film wraps up quickly and ties together almost too neatly, but the ending fits the fast paced comic style of everything before it. Overall, this is an entertaining and heartwarming film.
