Le Coach (2009)
Directed by Olivier Doran

Film Review

Le Coach is the classic French comedy revolving around two ill-matched individuals who get themselves trapped in a strained, often antagonistic relationship.  The most memorable examples of the genre were scripted and/or directed by Francis Veber - classics such as L'Emmerdeur (1973), La Chèvre (1981) and Le Dîner de cons (1998) - but the formula abounds in French comedy, from La Grande vadrouile (1966) to Intouchables (2011).  Le Coach successfully reworks this well-used device into a modern fable, in which a latter-day Svengali has his work cut out turning the most pathetic office mouse into the fiercest of corporate lions.

The third film in twelve years to be directed by Olivier Doran, this is a significant improvement on his earlier comedies Le Déménagement (1997) and Pur Week-end (2007).  Le Coach is hardly the most inspired of films - the script lacks imagination, the gags are mostly predictable - and it would probably have fallen flat on its face were it not for its one killer ingredient - the brilliant casting of Richard Berry and Jean-Paul Rouve in the lead roles.  As in Veber's earlier comedies, the rapport between the two leads is the main factor that decides whether the film wins or fails, and here the rapport is pitch perfect.

Berry and Rouve are not only fine comic performers, they are also each very capable dramatic actors.  Consequently, they bring a subtlety and depth to their performances which more than makes up for the scripting inadequacies.  You can hardly imagine a more contrasting pair - Berry plays the silky smooth, über-confident manipulator as effortlessly as Rouve does the contemptible but sympathetic ninny - and this is what makes Le Coach work so well, preventing it from being just another silly French comedy.

When the pendulum swings the other way, and Berry appears the insecure one, saved from his accumulating crises by the now visibly transformed Rouve, the actors take us with them and we hardly notice how ludicrously implausible the plot has become.  Le Coach is sorely lacking in both the writing and directing departments, but its two lead actors perform a remarkable salvage operation on it, injecting humour and humanity aplenty into a film that turns out to be far more enjoyable than you might imagine.  It's not in the league of L'Emmerdeur, but it is still great fun.

Film Synopsis

Maximilien Chêne is a personal coach who is a master of his craft, but whilst his talents are in great demand he has many personal failings of his own.  For one thing, he is a compulsive gambler, and it is because he is up to his eyes in debt that his wife threw him out of their house.   When fate throws him a lifeline, he grasps it with both hands: his latest mission is to turn diffident office boy Patrick Marmignon into an assertive and confident executive so that he can win a lucrative Japanese contract.  Marmignon's boss points out to Chêne that Marmignon is the nephew of the man who owns the company, one of the biggest firms in France.  For that reason, Marmignon must never know that he is being coached.  With his creditors breathing down his neck, Chêne has no option but to accept the challenge, but he soon begins to regret it.  Marmignon not only has no trace of killer instinct, he is so lacking in confidence that he can't even get himself a date...