This is not an exceptional movie. It is not thought provoking. It offers little social commentary. Its funniest bits are unfortunately its briefest. It doesn't even have a lot of gratuitous nudity, except for a few shots of male butt. So what does it have going for it? For one thing, it's fairly well written. No character comes across as stupid or even unsympathetic, which is already a plus, given the subject. The acting is great. The French really can churn these sexy comedies out and keep a high standard of acting. In part, this is because French films are in a bit of a doldrums, so I suppose good actors are working B films and glad to get the work. But there really is a European sensibility present that might not translate too well for American audiences. For example, the therapy group in which habitual cheaters own up to their sins is a scream. For one thing, everyone talks honestly and in a straightforward manner about their situation, which makes their lack of understanding that they have a "problem" even funnier. They just don't get it, and of course, being European, no question of a butch man-hating therapist, though she recites the usual litany on marriage and faithfulness. This may be the best longer sequence of the bunch, since their naïve inability to see their problem, much less admit it, tells volumes about European attitudes that, like I said, may not translate too well for Americans. Don't get me wrong: their blindness is exaggerated to the point of parody, but it is a possible blindness, something that allows the actors and director (in this segment, it is star Dujardin, who plays about 6 roles) to adopt a lighter tone. Imagine a Woody Allen treatment of infidelity about 20 years ago. Take away the narcissism, the self-indulgent and pseudo philosophical rhetoric, and you get an idea of the scene. Another minor plus: one segment has a 50 year old dentist carrying on with a 19 year student, an affair that we are told started when she was 15. Although Americans don't portray 15 year old sex, a self-indulgent age difference is normal. Here, the cheater gets his comeuppance not from a criticizing wife but from his paramour's teen age friends, who take advantage of his wallet and mock his willingness to play a young man's game. This is what I like about the movie: an economical and not so politicised treatment of faithfulness (or not), and especially a treatment that probably could not be made in America.
Review of The Players
