French Toast

Romantic comedies aren't supposed to be stellar narratives or strong on character development, but sometimes, they are superb on all fronts. Not French Toast, despite some decent acting, cinematography, and direction. The trouble lay in the writing, especially the climactic scene, which left us confused. The music was frequently intrusive and one or two of the characters were really too cliched to care about. Interestingly, for a film set in 1980s South Africa, there was not a single person of colour in the cast. All that said, I appreciated being able to hear Afrikaans in a film--a comparatively very rare experience.

Make sure you have subtitles on as it is in English, French and Afrikaans. Lovely photos of Paris, sweet story. May be unbelievable but a feel good romance without graphic.

I was a bit skeptical when I heard the Afrikaner but I plowed through... The main actress was pretty and made me want to watch further. I hoped that her journey would be interesting. I ignored the quality of the acting which is... uneven...? Or is that too generous? I also ignored the bad music... small budget movies usually cannot afford good soundtracks... ...the scenes shot in South Africa are set on the family farm so... ok... no black people. But then she gets to Paris and no brown or black people in the streets or in the subway? Really? That's when I decided to stop the movie. The chemistry wasn't there & white washing killed it for me. Don't get me wrong I skipped around to the end because I am a sucker for happy endings (no matter how bleached out the movie is) but there was just too much bad to make up for the good... in my humble opinion.

This is a complicated, different, tri-lingual love story.( Sort of!) It is set, oddly enough, in both South Africa and Paris and the dialogue is in Afrikaans, French and English. (Even though major segments are set in South Africa, there are no black actors/characters. That seemed odd.) The camera work in Paris has captured the essence and character of that beautiful city. Although there is a brief glimpse of Capetown's stunnig Table Mountain, the South African portions are not as wide-ranging as those in Paris. Pity! Because Capetown is also a very beautiful city. The story is a rather involved, unlikely sort of tale yet intriguing, compelling, suspenseful, entertaining and beautiful. The characters are well drawn and believable. There is romance without graphic sex. There is humour, tension and beauty. And the whole thing is beautifully filmed. But the story gets rather puzzling and complicated at the end. But no matter! It's still a unique and intriguing story. I would have voted it a ten except for the limp and misleading title. But it is one of the my top notch films so far this year.

But not enough. The story is OK if you need a romantic movie for a lazy weekend morning, and I didn't mind the Afrikaans that I barely understand, but sounds pretty good to my ears, but as a Frenchman I must say, why didn't enroll French people for the roles of French people, it made me not believe the story, and frankly, I could have.