L'Effet aquatique (2016)
Directed by Sólveig Anspach, Jean-Luc Gaget

Film Review

Before she finally succumbed to breast cancer in August 2015, writer-director Solveig Anspach neatly concluded her series of quirky fictional features with a typically charming rom-com that succinctly encapsulates her infectious zest for living.  L'Effet aquatique is a sequel of sorts to her earlier spirited comedy Queen of Montreuil (2013), with the magnificent trio of actors Florence Loiret-Caille, Samir Guesmi and Didda Jonsdottir all reprising their roles in another off-kilter slice of life that bristles with charm and good humour.  Released just under a year after its director's untimely death, the film is one of Anspach's warmest offerings and is so sweetly sincere and lacking in cynicism that you just cannot help taking it to your heart.

Inspired in part by Jerzy Skolimowski's Deep End (1970), L'Effet aquatique is less of a conventional rom-com and more a humorous account of what love can do to a perfectly well-adjusted individual once it has taken hold.  The film's depiction of an ordinary Joe driven to excessive behaviour in pursuit of his ideal soul-mate (who naturally mistakes his unwelcome attentions for creepy obsession) is authentically portrayed but provides a rich comedy vein.  As the downcast hero taking a fierce beating from Cupid's darts, Samir Guesmi turns in a sympathetic performance and is suitably matched with the fiercely independent but equally lonely widow played by Florence Loiret-Caille.  The colourful Icelandic actress Didda Jonsdottir, who has enlivened several previous Anspach films, comes into her own in the film's second half, when it switches location from Montreuil to Iceland, revitalising the film just as the narrative starts to sag.

Avoiding the more fanciful (almost surreal) comedy digressions of Queen of Montreuil, Anspach and her frequent co-screenwriter Jean-Luc Gaget make this a more believable comedy offering which gives more space for the central characters to breathe and engage our sympathies.  The chemistry between Guesmi and Loiret-Caille is ultimately what sells the film and prevents the perhaps too-understated humour from losing its appeal.  Avoiding the mushy excesses that are sadly part and parcel of most feel-good movies today, L'Effet aquatique is a delightful rom-com that you can comfortably sit through without feeling even slightly nauseous.  Solveig Anspach's directorial swansong may leave us lamenting her passing, but it also leaves us with a smile on our faces and a warm glow in our hearts.

Film Synopsis

Samir is a 40-something who lives in Montreuil and works as a crane operator.  One day, he notices an attractive widow named Agathe in a bar and finds himself strongly drawn to her.  Learning that she is a swimming instructor at the municipal pool, he decides to taking swimming lessons just so that he can get to know her better.  Agathe isn't fooled by Samir's deception for long, and deceit is the one thing that she cannot forgive.  Once she has twigged that he is a perfectly capable swimmer, she refuses to have anything more to do with him.  So off she goes to Iceland, to represent France at the Tenth International Congress of Swimming Instructors. Undeterred by this pretty blatant rejection, Samir follows Agathe to the congress and passes himself off as an Israeli delegate...