Bon rétablissement! (2014)
Directed by Jean Becker

Film Review

With morale in France at its lowest ebb in a generation, Jean Becker's latest good-natured pick-me-up, appropriately titled Bon rétablissement! (Get Well Soon), is certainly well-timed, but the chance is remote that it will bring much in the way of cheer to a nation that hasn't looked this dispirited since the gloomy days of the Occupation.  Becker's idea of a feel-good comedy is homeopathic by most people's standards, and it is unlikely that many under retirement age will fall for the faded charms of his latest downbeat comic offering, which is essentially a slim Gallic retelling of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol.  Here, Scrooge is a misanthropic grouch who finds himself in hospital after a close collision with a car.  A succession of unwelcome visitors (mostly flagrant stereotypes) has the effect of awakening the dormant human side of Mr Misery and he ends up being discharged (surprise, surprise) as Mr Nice.  Dickens' story is slightly more believable, but not quite as funny.

The film is as predictable as it is anodyne but, thanks to some superb casting choices, Becker deftly avoids an outright disaster and the film is as pleasant a timewaster as you could ask for.  It's adapted from a 2012 novel of the same title by Marie-Sabine Roger, whose book La Tête en friche had previously been brought to the big screen by Becker, assisted by a remarkable Gisèle Casadesus.  Again, it is the central performance in Bon rétablissement! that makes the film worth watching, and if Gérard Lanvin cannot salvage a dodgy Jean Becker film, who can?  Lanvin's curmudgeonly bedridden widower is endearingly unlikeable (or should that be likeably unendearing?) and is the perfect antidote to Becker's customarily saccharine slant on human relationships.

With no end of talented performers to play off in the generous supporting cast (which includes such likeable stars as Jean-Pierre Darroussin, Fred Testot Isabelle Candelier and Louis-Do de Lencquesaing), Lanvin has no difficulty keeping the low wattage humour mill going, even if many of the gags are as anaemic as a compulsive blood donor after being attacked by a hoard of vampires. The film does get into some difficulty when the sentimentally starts to take over, and some awkward dollops of cliché do little for its credibility.  With most of the narrative confined to one set and the lead actor immobilised for much of the film, Bon rétablissement! feels a tad theatrical and may have been better suited for the small screen.  Those who are used to Jean Becker's gentle, somewhat dated style of comedy are likely to be more forgiving than those who are not.  It's not the most dynamic of gloom busters, but with each of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse putting in a personal appearance in every news broadcast you watch these days any comic relief is welcome.  Well, it's cheaper than Prozac.

Film Synopsis

Pierre is a reluctant invalid.  Ending up in a hospital bed with his leg in plaster is not a scenario this spry 60-something would have chosen for himself, but it is what he is saddled with after a stupid accident.  A misanthropic loner by nature, he doesn't exactly enjoy the role of an incapacitated exhibit, haunted day and night by a never-ending parade of doctors, nurses and unwelcome relatives such as his brother Hervé.  But then, gradually, Pierre begins to see things in a new light.  Maybe people aren't so bad, after all, he reflects.  To his surprise, Pierre will leave hospital a new and better man...