The Case for a Friendly No Thanks

Thanks to my Friends is a bizarre film.

Perhaps I should start by saying the film is French.  That might explain some of the humour that didn’t quite work for me.

Then I should say it is a bit indulgent, as it is written, stars and was directed by the same man.

Then I should add that his friends seem to be in the other starring male roles, whereas for the female leads, some incredibly talented actresses have been employed.

And the women are needed: when it comes to the heavier aspects of the film, they earn their weight in gold with the seriousness and intensity that they bring.  Whereas when the boys are about…

The story flows Alex (Alex Lutz) who meets an old friend Thibault (Tom Dingler) who is now a life coach, and who urges Alex to break out of his usual “boring” existence and explore and express his hidden talents, despite the consequences this has on his relationships with his friends and his wife (though quite possibly she was “just” a girlfriend; its hard to be sure).

Being a French film, there are some very random and dark asides: Thibault is brought to Alex’s company after the boss tries to commit suicide (hilarious?); Alex’s girlfriend (wife?) is having huge emotional trauma with her inability to conceive (after a compelling and heart wrenching discussion, the topic is basically abandoned); and there is an end credit sequence “spoof” of a Dynasty like show that seemed to come out of nowhere.

There were some French in the audience and from the sounds of their chuckles, they found the film experience nothing less than hilarious.  However, while I found it occasionally amusing, the leads were total knobs, the story wandered all over the place, and a (I believe) running joke about not being able to drive a “real” car (for no explained reason) was completely undercut by the fact the person afflicted by the inability to drive actually did drive everywhere in some sort of electric vehicle that looked exactly like a car.  Huh?

The most solid part of the film was the stand out performances by the French “wife” actresses, who really added any and all depth and realism to proceedings.  Quite why they were with their respective husbands was never really explained, though it seemed to either boil down to Stockholm syndrome or them wanting to be with “fixer uppers”. 

All in all, it seemed like an episode for a generic TV comedy show stretched to feature length, except the film took no risks with the lead (male) characters and brought in all sorts of random “movie references” (like 300 Days of Summer’s dance synchronised sequences) that bore no relation to the “actual” way the story was to be told.

I would be interested to know what a French audience made of the film; for me, the film was underwhelming.

Verdict: Thanks to my Friends is a bizarre film.  3 self improvement courses out of 10.