Storyline
Violette, a 40-year old workaholic with a career in the fashion industry falls for a provincial computer geek, Jean-Rene, while on a spa retreat with her best friend.
Filming Locations: Studios de Paris, La Cité du Cinéma, Saint-Denis, Seine-Saint-Denis, France
Technical Specs
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Rating: 8/10
There has been no shortage of Oedipal offspring hellbent on disrupting
their parents' lives in comedies of all nationalities. Dutch director
Alex van Warmerdam probably handled this tricky subject matter best in
his 1986 landmark farce ABEL, pulling double duty by also playing the
titular thirty-pushing tyke whose refusal to vacate the homestead
wreaks all sorts of increasingly surreal havoc. A huge success in the
Netherlands, it firmly established the young filmmaker's reputation
through festival screenings around the world, begetting the remarkably
similar if decidedly more benign French film TANGUY (2001, Etienne
Chatiliez) as a direct result.
Continuing the trend, as well as an intriguing directorial career that
has yet to shift into high gear, is Continental art-house cinema
actress Julie Delpy with what is already her sixth full length feature,
also just the second of these (after her exercise in "fantastique", THE
COUNTESS) not to register as a total blab-fest. Don't get me wrong,
LOLO (which bears a strong if unacknowledged resemblance to the Duplass
Brothers' CYRUS from a few years prior) still has characters yakking it
up at regular intervals but these streams of (often scintillating)
dialogue usually propel the plot forward at almost breakneck speed,
making for a most enjoyable hour and a half. What surprised me most,
which may qualify as a leftover from Delpy's recent dabbling in horror
cinema, was just how far into darkness the director seemed prepared to
take her subject matter in its final stages.
Taking a richly deserved spa holiday in scenic Biarritz with
foul-mouthed best friend Ariane (the indomitable Karin Viard in fine
form) in tow, forty-something fashion editor Violette (Delpy) finds
herself falling unexpectedly in love with local kind-hearted divorced
IT specialist Jean-René (Dany Boon) who's already planning to relocate
to Paris. Although at the top of his profession, Jean still registers
as the French equivalent of a redneck to Paris natives and Violette
frets about whether he'll fit in with her image-obsessed crowd.
What she doesn't realize is that the greatest threat to their newfound
happiness lies closer to or more accurately inside the home : her
19-year old son Eloi, affectionately known as Lolo, an endearment he
definitely doesn't deserve. Portrayed by fresh French heartthrob
Vincent Lacoste who became an instant star thanks to Riad Sattouf's
2009 surprise smash LES BEAUX GOSSES (a/k/a THE FRENCH KISSERS), it's
easy to see how this charming viper has managed to pull the wool over
his mother's eyes for so long, but once there's a man moving in on his
territory (a trend that's belatedly revealed as having started with his
proper dad) the fangs come out. The pestering starts out innocently
enough, the brat pouring itching powder on Jean's clothes (leading to a
ridiculously thorough medical exam when Violette suspects he might have
what was once euphemistically called a social disease), but soon
increases to epic proportions.
This kind of character-based comedy can fall flat on its face without
the right actors to carry it. Fortunately, the casting is practically
flawless down to the smallest parts, such as the priceless Nicolas
Wanczycki (from TV's THE RETURNED) as an unintentionally droll doctor
in the hospital emergency room. Delpy can do neurotic as well as Diane
Keaton, minus the mannerisms which sometimes mar the latter's artistic
achievements, though another director could have conceivably prevented
her from the occasional spot of overacting. Audience favorite Dany Boon
(who broke all local box office records with BIENVENUE CHEZ LES CH'TIS)
might seem like an odd choice to pair up with the highbrow Delpy but
his work in Jean-Pierre Jeunet's underrated MICMACS A TIRE-LARIGOT
already showed the actor was capable of far more subtlety than his
endless string of rowdy crowd-pleasers suggested. His casting actually
proves a shrewd move on Delpy's part, an insidious tactic to draw in
the punters who usually stay away in droves from her movies.
Visually way more refined than your average point and shoot French
farce, courtesy of the venerable Thierry Arbogast (who photographed
most of Luc Besson's stuff), LOLO further ups the ante with an eclectic
series of soundtrack selections. These range from Andy Williams's
irresistible toe-tapper Music to Watch Girls Go By (playing over
terrific animated opening credits) to Max Steiner's syrupy Theme from A
Summer Place and Etta James belting out Plum Nuts over the end scroll.
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