3 amis (2007)
Directed by Michel Boujenah

Film Review

Actor-turned-director Michel Boujenah followed up his popular directorial debut feature Père et fils (2003) with this engaging but pretty lightweight portrait of friendship between a group of middle-aged people, viewed from a slightly cynical angle. It is a variation on the kind of 'greying buddy movie' that has become popular in French cinema in recent years, following the immense success of Marc Esposito's similarly themed Le Coeur des hommes (2003). Even though the characters are a little younger than in Esposito's film, and one of them is a woman (Mathilde Seigner), it's pretty well the same formulae - a group of individuals who have been friends for years come together to help each other out through their mid-life crises. Boujenah assembles an attractive cast which includes an all-too-brief appearance by Philippe Noiret in his final film role (he died not long after completing work on the film). 3 amis is an engagiing film but it fails to make much of an impact.  The situations are banal, the comedy predictable, the storyline bland and routine.  Unlike in Boujenah's likeable first film, the characters are thinly eketched stereotypes, although the three principals do their absolute best to make it work and succeed in squeezing a few laughs out of a mediocre screenplay.

Film Synopsis

Claire, César and Baptiste have been the best of friends since they were children and they remain so to this day.  Now that they have reached middle-age, they need each other more than ever.  When Baptiste's wife tells them of her intention to leave her husband it falls to Claire and César to break the sad news to their friend.  As Baptiste sinks into depression, César hires a call girl to cheer him up.  Not realising that the young woman who enters his life unexpectedly is a prostitute, Baptiste falls madly in love with her.  Meanwhile, unbeknownst to her friends, Claire is busy looking for her natural mother, whose identity has so far been kept from her.  When they learn of this, Baptiste and César decide to give her a helping hand, but quickly regret getting involved...