Mince alors! (2012)
Directed by Charlotte de Turckheim

Film Review

For her third film as a director, Charlotte de Turckheim makes a spirited attempt to engage with one of the weightier issues of our time - obesity.  How to live with being overweight, and what to do about it if you can't, that is the main theme of Mince alors!, a predictable female-centric comedy that struggles to find humour in a subject that is perhaps too serious and too endemic to treat lightly.  Turckheim negotiates a minefield of political correctness with too much self-conscious timidity and as a result her film lacks substance and bite, although it is not entirely without charm. 

Mince alors! is the blandest form of satire, far too reliant on cliché and caricature to have any real impact.  The film may start out with noble intentions, but it is hampered by a screenplay that is content to churn out well-worn banalities and totally unconvincing situations. Turckheim deserves her reputation as an accomplished actress of stage and screen, but her direction is bland and unimaginative.  The only thing the film has going for it is the engaging lead performance from Lola Dewaere, who makes an impressive screen debut and looks set to follow in the footsteps of her illustrious father, Patrick.  Heaven alone knows how this film managed to attract an audience of 1.4 million in France - it must have latched onto some kind of Zeitgeist.

Film Synopsis

Nina is young, pretty - and round.  Unfortunately, her husband Gaspard only has eyes for women with stick-insect waistlines, particularly since the couple moved to Paris to sell bathing costumes for the ultra-thin.  Against her will, Nina accepts her husband's gift of a stay at slimming clinic in Brides-les-Bains.  Here, she meets Sophie, an attractive lawyer from Marseille who is determined to gain control over her body, and Emilie, a mother who has come to realise that, whilst Big is Beautiful, it can play havoc with your love life...