The Chef's Wife

The cast made this seem like a good proposition. I try to watch anything with Roschdy Zem on principle. Production values are handsome - nice titles, sharp bright colours, unfamiliar settings and personable players. I settled back for an agreeable couple of hours at the movies but as this one ran it became more and more irritating.

Divorced Viard is a Skills Assessment officer handling a batch of new unemployeds from the local My Toy factory. Uneasy among them is Devos, who turns out to be the co owner with husband Roschdy of the out of town Moulin Blanc epicure restaurant. The two women involve each other in webs of deceit which are embarrassing rather than funny, involving or plausible.

Devos and Zem are pretty much indestructible but all the good living fantasy they are involved in is unworthy of them.

First of all,I would like to answer the reviewer who, in his insightful comment ,wrote that to appreciate French movies,you have got to be familiar with Molière ,La Fontaine,and co!As this reviewer wrote from the USA ,I'd tell him that,to appreciate the American movies ,say,of the fifties,you do not have to be familiar with Dreiser,Williams ,Miller,Steinbeck Et Al.

French women directors ,more and more,make their presence felt in the French cinema ;the psychic daughters of Jacqueline Audry (much more than Varda),their subject is often women and they do it better than their male counterparts.

In spite of a disappointing ending,"On A Failli Etre Amies" is much fun to watch ,particularly in its first hour,full of funny,nay hilarious scenes;besides Emmanuelle Devos and Karine Viard give superlative performances.

The depiction of the vocational training center is a sensational moment: the lozenge metaphor nobody understands (the others just pretend) by a self-satisfied would be highbrow whose teaching skills are not up to scratch;the "answer" (the job Carole is looking for) of the computer may become a classic scene : the machine goes on repeating" falconer" ;the accident (how is it possible on a straight road ?,says the angry cook)

When we meet Carole,she lacks self-assurance and self-confidence ,although her husband makes gourmet dishes (and I mean gourmet!) in his chic restaurant "Le Moulin Bleu" ;this skilled cook seems to outstrip her .In direct contrast with her,Marithé is the young executive,with good prospects ,but ,unlike her colleague,she has her way with her trainees :Carole's husband is to open a bistro? - let's notice that this bistro is not a cheap place like the French know,and this is a misnomer- presto,new jobs for her unemployed people! Little by little,as Carole gains assurance,it is at Marithé 's expense !The timid woman is some kind of vampire who puts her on and wears her out.

Except for the scenes with Marithé 's parents and sonny's scholarship ,filler which gets in the way,the screenplay is tight ,well- constructed till the trainer's burn out.

Afterward ,the movie loses steam :we could expect more madness,more bitterness,and (yes!) more nastiness ;this is finally a predictable happy end of sorts;we would like to be surprised and we are given a bourgeois denouement.

Watch it anyway :there are too many good scenes in it ! Let's hope talented Mrs Le Ny will see it through his next effort.

The scenario is a wealthy neighborhood of the city of Orléans. The characters: two fortysomething women, Marithé and Carole. Marithé, separated from her husband years ago, has a son of university age and Carole is the wife of Sam, a famous, Michelin starred chef, and works as the head hostess in his restaurant. That have no children. Marithé teaches classes and works on a one-to-one basis in a center supposed to pair laid off workers with the profession that best suits their skills. There are deft touches of humor here, such as the almost unanimous skepticism of Marithé's class and the weird answers that a badly designed software comes up with. Carole seems dissatisfied with her job, resents living under the shadow of Sam's oversize personality and is is looking aimlessly for a way out.

The plot starts with Carole sneaking in Marithé's skills assessment class and having one-to-one sessions with her to which she is not entitled, as she has a job. An uneasy, twisty relationship between the women begins which seems at times to be (or lead to) friendship, but is tainted by insincerity and manipulation (hence the French title, that could be translated to "We failed at becoming friends."

Script is witty, intelligent and never falls into cliché territory. Excellent acting by Karin Viard (Marithé) and Emmanuelle Devos (Carole). Roschdy Zem (Sam) shows his unfailing excellence although his role is more limited. Direction by Anne Le Ny (who also cowrote the script) is fluid and seamless and the tale keeps your attention from beginning to end. Neither woman's character is very endearing to the viewer (which makes the movie somewhat uninvolving) but this is intentional. A quality film.

This movie is basically about a love triangle. Nothing unique there, and yet the way it's done is clever, appealing, and not simplistic. What impressed me right away was the way the plot was set up. It was original and the action was not forced as happens in some movies. Two women meet in surprising circumstances: one of the actresses plays a life counselor who tries to help the other lead actress, whom she had thought was happy with her life. The counselor always tries to maintain her professionalism, yet circumstances force changes in their relationship, as well as her meeting the client's husband, and the plot develops from there.

There have been so many movies where food is a character, and so it is with this movie. Yet as with the setup I wrote about above, it's handled in a very "tasty," sensual way; again not unique, but very well done, and blends in with the plot and action very well.

At times the movie is a bit too much of a "chic flick" for me, and also annoying for me was one of the lead actresses frequently shaking her midsection to show off her breasts. Maybe not at the top of anyone's watch list, the movie is well worth watching.

This movie is not a romantic comedy. It is a story of two middle-aged women at crossroads. A few moments that are supposed to be funny are not played well. Either the screen play was not good and dialogs were not written well or the roles are not suitable for the two very well known actresses. Roschdy Zen is more convincing in his role, but cannot make it much more interesting to watch. If it is supposed to be ironic it is not easy to understand what the irony is about. The movie is shallow compared to a great number of French comedies from 1970-1980-ies. Moreover, in the past there was something thought-provoking in the French comedies with Richard or Belmondo. It is missing now.