Des gens bien

When robbers kidnap ,accidentally or not, a child, in a comedy , you can see where they are up to from a mile off...The child is unbearable, more cunning than his kidnappers,and eventually, gets them on a string....

The "villains" ask sister Rose to take the child back to town where she'll find her parents ;but when she is in the bath tub , they discover bruises on the little girl's body :this is a battered child .When a distraught daddy appears on the TV screen to urge them to release his daughter ("I won't sue you") , the girl's face tells the whole story:she's afraid of her parents and wants to stay with her kidnappers.

This situation is nothing but derivative :the villains become the good guys overnight ,and the unfortunate parents child-batterers -further investigation by the police reveals that the girlie would go through a living hell.

Guardian angels Raphael and Gabriel (the names are revealing!)set off for Spain to escape from the police ,but mainly to save their protégée ; then it becomes a road movie , with funny moments :as the police is hot on their heels and search for two men and a girl ,one of them shaves his beard ,the other puts on a wig to play the role of the "mom" ,and the girl has her hair cut short to pass off as a boy.And if it weren't enough , the girl has an imaginary friend -it's not gratuitous,a child often deprived of love affection often invents somebody who cares for his/her- ,Paco :when he goes to the toilets ,you have to wait for him!

An old lady and a muscle man named Goliath (sic) give them a shelter : Margot , a ninety-something , is for girl Paloma the great grand mother she's never had and the rapport they have is deeply moving : their conversation under the stars will drive you to tears.Monique Chaumette ,who was married to the sadly missed Philippe Noiret , finds the role of a lifetime at 90+. As for Goliath ,he represents the sturdy hero children meet in comics who always saves the damsel in distress.

The movie runs out of steam a little in its last twenty minutes ,and some sequences are filler.

But this is a good movie,with an important message to get through : there are battered children here ,there and everywhere.More than a thriller or a comedy ,this is a fable which proves that decent people are not always so and that rescuers are not always to be found in daredevil heroes, brilliant lawyers ,devoted social workers or courageous policemen.