La maison du bonheur (2006)

User Rating:

5.2/10   

Director:

Dany Boon

Writer:

Dany Boon (writer)

Release Date:

7 June 2006 (France)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

On a mission to loosen up, a miser's sets about buying a house in the country for his family. |

Cast

Dany Boon	...	Charles Boulin
Michèle Laroque	...	Anne Boulin
Daniel Prévost	...	Jean-Pierre Draquart
Zinedine Soualem	...	Mouloud Mami
Laurent Gamelon	...	Donatello Pirelli
Line Renaud	...	Tata Suzanne Bailleul
Michel Vuillermoz	...	Jacques Kurtz
Ariane Seguillon	...	Nicole Kurtz
Gaëlle Bona	...	Élisabeth
Antoine Chappey	...	Alexis Boulin
Laure Sirieix	...	Norah Boulin
Didier Flamand	...	Le banquier
Jacqueline Jehanneuf	...	La propriétaire de la maison
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Patrice Abbou
Virginia Anderson	...	Le Médecin
Frédéric Bouraly
Jean Dell
Jean-François Elberg	...	Mr Muffa
Jeff El Eini	...	Le Clerc de Notaire
Celine Lombard
Guillaume Morand	...	Antoine
Pascal Mottier	...	Chef de rang
Alain Sachs
David Strajmayster	...	Directeur McDo
Isabelle Tanakil

Country:

France

Language:

French

Colour:

Colour

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Certification:

Switzerland:7 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:7 (canton of Vaud)

Company:

Pathé Renn Productions

Movie Connections:

Remake of La vie de chantier (2004) (V)

A concentrated feast of breathless comedy ! Matière à rire !

No bones about it, this really is a very very good comedy, if a little breathless for the spectator ! It's one of those comedies that accumulate catastrophe after catastrophe and you end up wondering how on earth (or in heaven !) it's all going to work out in the end ! A young man working in the litigation department of a credit company and rather miserly in general to boot, decides to secretly buy a country house for his wife and sell their present central Paris apartment, all unbeknown to her and unfortunately falls upon a shyster estate agent who manages to sell him a ruin and, to make things even worse, furnishes a less-than-completent building team ( even worse than O'Reilly in Fawlty Towers ) who manage to botch up just about every job they undertake ! In addition, Boon's office co-worker is seeking to buy the same house, unbeknown to him and the vile estate agent, played by Daniel Prévost, is disgustingly playing one off against the other ! The rest of the story I will leave for you to discover ! I originally went to see the film because I am very fond of Michèle Laroque as an actress ( I had already noticed her in "Bébé Express" and her other works with Pierre Palmade ) and to a certain extent Daniel Prévost, who had above all stuck in my mind as the memorable tax inspector "Cheval" in "Le Diner des Cons".

Dany Boon is apparently a stand up comedian and not noted for cinema, this being indeed his first work a a director ! Well I thoroughly enjoyed this film and the type of humour it distills. Many spectators will be able to relate to the problems of indebtedness, losing your job, keeping secrets from your wife, incompetent building workers, shyster estate agents ..... OK, in this story EVERYTHING seems to go wrong and it is a little exaggerated but individually, alas, these situations happen to people just a little too often, and indeed the film may at least provide comic relief to some viewers who will take a deep sigh and say "Phew, I thought my situation was bad enough, but this poor guy ...... ! Anyway there's not a dull moment in this film and I would thoroughly recommend it for anywone who's feeling down in the dumps ! Correct international distribution of the work should be able to ensure it worldwide success !