En liberté!

This movie is a very mixed bag. There are a good number of quite funny bits, and thanks to Audrey Tautou in a supporting role, a couple of genuinely touching moments. But the actions and reactions of the two main characters make absolutely no psychological sense at all, ever. If that doesn't put you off, then by all means see this movie for the many funny gags.

The movie is being advertised in France as being "the best comedy of the year 2018" or "you will die laughing". In fact, I only smiled once. The rest of the people in the theater the same... Otherwise the movie is absolutely boring with an awful screenplay and with some scenes that could easily candidate to the worst moments in French Cinematography.

This film tells the story of a widowed policewoman, who tries to make up for the wrongs that her husband did.

The story is quite crazy and unbelievable in a funny way. It is quite entertaining, and yet makes you question the choices of the policewoman at the same time.

To define it as a comedy can be unfair. In essence, it is a smart film about lies, truth, injustice , love and a beautiful cast telling, in proper manner, a bitter- sweet story, with few good slices of absurd, unrealism, eccentricity. But, obvious, a charming film. In essence, about a boy and his dad. Or, about the option of a man after eight years in prison for save the freedom of a cop.

'En liberte!', The 2018 French comedy directed by Pierre Salvadori, opens with a scene that seems to be taken from an action movie with super-cops made in the 60s. The scene, in which a brave policeman neutralizes a large crowd of gangsters, a scene that is repeated with variations several times throughout the film, is actually the summary of the bed-time story told by the film's heroine, police lieutenant Yvonne Santi (Adele Haenel) to her son falls to have him fall asleep, recounting the heroism of her husband, also a police officer, who fell on the line of duty two years before. It so happens that Yvonne discovers the true face of her ex-husband: not a hero, but a corrupt policeman, who also destroyed the life of a young man named Antoine (Pio Marmai), whom he had innocently imprisoned. Antoine, wrongfully convicted, is on the verge of release. Policewoman Yvonne will try to make up for some of her husband's injustice. Is redemption possible?

'En liberte!', the French title of the film, can have several meanings in French. It literally means 'released', as Antoine finds himself, awaited by his wife Agnes (Audrey Tautou), free to resume his life from the point where it was interrupted by injustice. However, the second meaning would have been 'unleashed', also fit, because in prison Antoine had both accumulated anger for the years of his youth that he had been deprived of and had also learned violent methods to express his frustrations. Yvonne, who experiences her own frustrations and faces loneliness by refusing the advances of another fellow police officer, will try to fix what her missing husband had destroyed - Antoine's life. It is not an easy task, and the risk that the young man who went through the 'prison school' will be the one to draw the young police woman on the slope of mental imbalance and crime is permanently present.

The cast is blessed by the presence of Audrey Tautou in a supporting role, which she plays very well. What I found fascinating is the fact that the excellent actress Adele Haenel takes over exactly the type of heroine played by Tautou in some of the previous films - physical beauty doubled and amplified by an inner radiance and goodness, intelligence and emotional maturity that guides her in doing good to those around, sometimes in spite of themselves, risking and sacrificing a lot for others around. I had noticed first Adele Haenel in the film 'La fille inconue' by the Dardenne brothers, then I admired her in Portrait of a Lady on Fire. Her role in this film confirms to me that she is one of the most talented and full of personality actresses of her generation. The story, quite improbable in fact, manages to pass the screen due to her charm and the one of her partner Pio Marmai, and to the cinematic approach that is a combination of romantic movie and comedy with cops in the good French tradition of the gendarme from Saint Tropez movies, updated to today's realities of the cities on the French Riviera. 'En liberte!' it's a more than enjoyable movie and those looking for quality entertainment in the summer months can find it here.