Supercondriaque

I don't think the basic premise of this film is hard to guess. It revolves around Chris O'Dowd's French doppelgänger, Romain (Danny Boon), who in addition to being a 'superchondriac', seems to have a myriad of mental problems in addition to this. His fear of germs leads to some seriously funny scenes, and best of all the humour is varied. I lost count of the times I laughed out loud – this is a very, very funny film, and the humour is most definitely un-western. Colour me a fan of French comedy then! What is truly great about this character is that his personality is not simply based around the title of the film. He is a true eccentric, and the writers of this film have injected a ton of personality into his character, creating a thoroughly unique person. Kudos. Another fantastic aspect of the film is the relationships he forms with other characters, all so different, yet all hilarious in some way. All the acting here is extremely solid, and this only adds to the humour as many reactions to Romain's insane looking behaviour are priceless.

This film's biggest strength is not only its comedy, but in its character development and writing. It isn't just Danny Boon who is memorable, the entire main cast are and all are involved in many funny scenes. The character arc of Romain is especially well done, as he slowly becomes a different person after starting the film as a truly insane man. The film's next biggest strength is that despite the title, which is the basis for the first act and a recurring theme that doesn't cease to make you smile, the movie goes in a very unexpected direction at the beginning of the second act. Suddenly the straight comedy of the first thirty or so minutes turns into a comedic French mystery/thriller film. It is very bizarre and surreal, and totally implausible (and unpredictable!). However, it fits neatly alongside the crazy behaviour of Romain, and is a cue for more strange situations that build in intensity, yet at the same time, Romain's insane fear of germs and becoming sick is a constant motif that didn't fail once for me. I couldn't stop laughing, the situations were so absurd and creative, and the humour is ranged variety, from pure slapstick to witty remarks to heavy sarcasm. Yep, I am definitely a big fan of French comedy now, I need to find some more movies like this.

One memorable scene involves Romain trying to catch a train… and while on the train he desperately tries to avoid touching anything, looking like a busker balancing act as the train shakes and rattles about. Another great scene that you can see above involves an MRI machine, and I was in pain laughing at it. Almost all Romain's interaction with other people is funny in some way, because this guy is OCD on full-display, terrified of germs and informing everyone he comes across how easy it is to get sick. Constantly disinfecting his hands, his warnings to almost every person he speaks to (including potential dates) are again hilarious as he casually explains exactly how germs can spread and cause sickness. In fact, even characters without lines make you laugh as they react to watching this bizarre behaviour. I'm chuckling now writing this, which is always a good sign for the comedic quality of a film. There are many truly fantastic, ridiculous and hilarious set-pieces.

The relationship Romain has with his doctor is fantastically written, and another endlessly entertaining aspect of the flick. He considers the doctor a close friend (much to the doctor's chagrin, but Romain has no one else), and this lopsided relationship is more fodder for endless hysterical scenes, whether the two are two arguing or playfully getting along – the latter being something that clearly irritates the doctor's wife when early in the film the doctor agrees to let Romain stay for the night at his house. Their relationship and the doctor's character is as well-written as the character of Romain; the man possesses a unique personality and one gets the sense that the writers of this film really focused on character development and personality quirks, as almost every character has some sort of amusing flaw that keeps the movie's momentum flowing and the laughs coming.

IN A NUTSHELL?

The greatest thing about this film is that it doesn't just focus on Romain and his obsession with being sick. The massive turn into a comedic thriller was most certainly unexpected, and that combo is a genre I don't usually like, but here it works to perfection as the story gradually becomes more insane. If I could point out a flaw of this, it would be that the chain of events are barely plausible. But hey, it's a movie, right? Bloody hilarious start to finish, I am fairly sure I annoyed the other people in the cinema while watching this one, sorry guys! That hasn't happened since I saw The Wolf On Wall Street, so I think this flick is in good company! Highly recommended, especially if you enjoy European humour. Hell, I recommend this to anyone who likes foreign film, as this is better than any American comedy I have seen since… well, The Wolf on Wall Street. Intelligent writing had lead to a truly unique and funny experience. Danny Boon is a new name to me, IMDb here I come!

4/5

http://epilepticmoondancer.net

It may seem to be a rather ordinary work from a nation that did quite well in production of excellent comedies. It helped to renew my blurred memories of my French vocabulary though. And I had some good laughs with my friends while watching it. I would say it is a film worth watching, especially when you are seeking to relax your tense nerves and do not care to follow a complicated plot.

First things first : this is not the movie that will save 21st Century French comedies. It's pretty bad.

The plot makes no sense whatsoever: you would believe there are ghosts in the subways of Paris or an alien invasion in London before believing anyone would be dumb enough to confuse our super french weak main character with an east European revolutionary leader fighter type.

Dany Boon also just overplays it. In this movie he embraces being a new Louis de Funes... but does it quite pull it off. Even if he did, don't do this kind of stuff in 2014 no?

What does work sometimes is the premise of the main character : this germ and virus phobia did get a few chuckles here and there throughout the movie. Enough and often enough for me to plow through the whole thing.

Voila, you can probably pass though.

What a lousy and infuriating comedy! Right now, I have a thought for all the struggling screenwriters who'll probably never have the chance to see their projects gracing the screen, because what they lack is not talent, but a name. It's so unfortunate that we must endure such pointless movies just because their makers asserted their bankability once. I know Cinema is a cash-grabbing industry but must that be at the expenses of good taste and fun?

Dany Boon made a name for himself, when he made the film about 'Northern People', the "Ch'tis", it ended up being the highest-grossing French film ever, but I suspect many classics from the 80's/90's would have had extra viewers if they had the chance to be released in the Internet era. Never mind, Boon succeeded and the young comedian surely earned it, he was like the Cinderella figure of comedians, a popular figure for popular movies, and I still remember the backlash over the lack of nominations for his money-making film (except for Best Screenplay) and I thought that the comedian sinned by egomania because the film was nothing revolutionary on the field of acting, directing and writing, and many comedies were nominated in the past and deservedly so, "The Visitors", "Amelie" or "Intouchables", to name them.

But in France, when you get the money, you get the power, and after the 'Ch'tis", any project led by Dany Boon was a cash-flow guarantee, he oozed success and how couldn't he, with his buffoonish face and mimics, he's a comedian who finds the perfect note to appeal to both children and grown-ups, and by playing the straight guy, Kad Merad efficiently completes him. So there was no reason for a story of a hypochondriac guy and his friend, a doctor, wouldn't be a source of hilarious gags. And it starts very well, until it finally sinks in the ridiculous addition of a love story and some mistaken identities' subplots involving immigrants from Eastern Europe, it goes everywhere but ultimately nowhere.

The film is cruelly misleading because it features some of the best visual gags in the beginning, a man who's so scared of germs he avoids the New Year's countdown because he can't kiss all the guests and ruin the parties in the worst possible way, his ballet in the Parisian subway in order to avoid the poles is a magnificent example of slapstick and silent comedy that even afforded a funny punch line. And Boon enriches his characters with delightful verbal bits, he's a photograph for a medical book, which explains his phobia and in a waiting room, he tells the patients that the room is just a scheme in order to provoke a general contamination, and keep people sick. At this moment, I knew I was watching a monument of comedy and that the film made 5 millions viewers was even more encouraging.

The character was funny, touching and worked as a perfect foil for an original plot, but slowly, the whole fun disintegrates and the comedy derails toward "the man must find a woman in his life": that becomes his priority, but wouldn't we care more for his hypochondria? Anyway, the romantic stuff starts well with a few failing dates that overly exaggerated his mania, and then the film gets mixed in the political subplot, where Boon pretends to be a refugee and must pull an accent to fool his friend's sister, well, at that point, I didn't think the film was going to improve, the best gags were far behind. The film had a great concept and I suspect the best ideas were put in the first draft and only made twenty pages so they had to stuff it with more plots, including a ridiculous running-gag with the doctor's wife thinking her husband is a latent homosexual.

Maybe the material was more fit for a sitcom episode but the character was so eccentric by himself, he didn't need to be put in eccentric situations.That's the mistake most comedies make, sometimes, they get beyond their concept and lost the track. Romain, the guy played by Boon, was funny because he was acting according to his nature in an environment that was normal, when the events get abnormal; the comedy inevitably becomes over the top. And there was a moment where my enthusiasm dropped, in a dinner scene where Romain was supposedly mourning a dead colleague and he was making some weird bestial noises, I didn't know if he was serious or not, if he was serious, it was ridiculous in the film's context, if not, it was some lousy over the top acting.

And that's what happens when you entrust someone with a big budget, Boon was paid 2 million euros for this, I'm pretty sure the same concept with a budget ten times inferior would have forced the maker to focus on the character and not venture in politics, and a screenwriter who's given his first shot might have found more clever subplots. You can do a lot with a germ phobia, just put him in a prison and see what happens. The film had its moments in the midst of the mediocre turn it took, but nothing to match the laughter roller-coaster of the first ten minutes, that's what is infuriating.

And apparently, Boon stuck to his 'personality-concept' movies (why not? since it makes money) and released a film about a stingy man, well, I wonder what happens in the second act, is he stranded in a desert island? Hi-jacked by terrorists? Or meet extra-terrestrials? No scenario would surprise me anymore.

Supercondriaque is, somehow, two movies thrown together - the titular hypochondriac comedy, and a mix-up immigration comedy - each of them might work perfectly on its own but the mix has a somewhat hollow taste, it's switching from silly comedy to social commentary to action to intelligent comedy to slapstick and back. None of the characters gets any depth since everyone of them has to act completely silly (= so silly it would feel displaced even in "Hangover") every few scenes to keep the convoluted comedy going, and as a result nothing and no-one gets taken seriously.

There are some really funny scenes in there and one or two good running gags, and there would even be something like a message if we cared about the characters, but as a whole this movie is like some soufflé without salt ... quickly forgotten, nothing of consequence.