"I knew a boy who tried to swim across the lake, It's a hell of a thing to do, They say the lake is as big as the ocean, I wonder If he knew about it" (Yoko Ono,lyrics slightly modified)
Lioret is one of the most promising French directors .His "Je Vais Bien Ne T'En Fais Pas " deeply moved the crowds .His "welcome" is at least as good,as harrowing and as...pessimistic , noir as his precedent effort.
He chose the right actor as the lifeguard :Vincent Lindon was perhaps never better in his part of a disoriented man ,estranged from his wife , in search of the meaning of his life .With his weary face ,his disenchanted looks ,he seems to carry the weight of the world on his shoulders .Which he does ,in a way.
France ,par excellence the country of refuge (particularly political refugees),is shown in a less-than-flattering light than usual;on the other hand ,one can wonder whether the United Kingdom is really the promised land as it appears in the film.In Calais ,people who gave a shelter to illegal migrants were actually troubled by the Police .Although this is not a true story,all that happens to the lifeguard is credible.
Images of Police vans,of sad beaches ,of free meals ,of informers (the neighbor claims that Simon helps the young Kurd in return for sexual relations!)
The divorced hero has become a cliché;but Lioret makes brilliant use of the screenplay cliché: it's perhaps because Simon has become a lonely man that he takes in his young protégé (one should note he's got no children whereas he is in his fifties ).Simon is ready to give all: his reputation ("yes I'm a gay,I sleep with him ,and I sleep with guys that's why my wife walks out on me" ),his dear treasures (his gold medal:"I gave him" ),and maybe even his job .
To swim across the Channel to get to your girlfriend Mina is an impossible task when you are 17 and you're not a first class swimmer.It's the young man's dream and Simon makes his dream his.
"Welcome" is a great movie,one of the best French movies of the last ten years.
