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14 out of 19 people found the following review useful: "We don't see France in the same way...", 28 October 2008 Author: stenson77 from United Kingdom
Having been a huge fan of Jaoui and Bacri's films for many years, I have to admit I approach each one with a vague sense of trepidation in case they mess things up. I wasn't overly enamoured with their last film, Comme Une Image, as I felt Bacri's standard hapless-and-frustrated-but-ultimately-lovable character had become plain nasty and cruel. This time, I think they got it spot on all round. What I love about their films is that you can watch them again and again, taking something new from them with each viewing. Focusing on the minutiae of life whilst using delicate brush strokes to highlight the intricacies of human relationships via gentle but hilarious comedy is what they do best, and I found this film frequently hilarious. The actors are all superb, and the various characters give such a seemingly mundane story a depth not many films achieve, as French political life and its future are examined with a delicate touch by Jaoui, who credits her audience with much intelligence. The sight of an ambitious feminist politician leading a white middle-class man, a young French Arab and a flock of sheep down a hill, before the group get lost and are rescued by a pair of farmers, struck a chord with me, as did the relationship between Karim's mother and the bourgeois family for whom she works without being paid. There were some question marks, such as Karim's seemingly invisible wife he seemingly wants to cheat on when she herself appears affable and friendly, but overall it's a thought-provoking, entertaining and downright funny film.
3 out of 7 people found the following review useful: Jaoui is speaking to a small audience here., 18 November 2008 Author: Jamie Ward from United Kingdom
Let's Talk About the Rain is about as exciting and entertaining as, well, talking about the rain. Such a discussion may warrant some interesting insights into the person you are communicating with and in turn you may learn a little about yourself, but it certainly wouldn't go on for two hours. In what would have been a much more concise and in turn, poignant project, director Agnès Jaoui makes a fine impression here but also shows a lack of restraint in her ability to know when to cut apart her work. It can be lightly amusing and uplifting, insightful and has character work that puts many of this year's features to shame, yet it also lacks any momentum, or motivation; main character Michel Ronsard would say they are the same thing, and Jaoui neglects both. In the end the director's feature comes off as an exceptional study of character but one devoid of any significance outside of its practice. From beginning to end the performances and writing establish that Let's Talk About the Rain is strictly an academic exercise in documenting. A fine piece of character study, but lacking any resounding message or clear intent, Jaoui succumbs to the astute pointlessness that too often dominates such directors' work.With little to no plot at all, Let's Talk About the Rain tells the paper thin story of a group of individuals loosely connected through family, friends and colleagues. The central figures of this collage come in the form of incompetent documentary film-maker Michel Ronsard (Jean-Pierre Bacri), his talented assistant Karim (Jamel Debbouze) and their subject; a successful politician and feminist Agathe Villanova (Agnès Jaoui). Using these characters and those around them Jaoui does well to tell an engaging story that slowly unravels the layers of dynamism between her personalities, whether it is through friendship, family, business or most importantly, love. Moving at a snail's pace from beginning to end, it's easy to get a little despondent when watching Let's Talk About the Rain go over its incessant need to analyse and document the mundane and largely inconsequential moments that these characters share, yet there are also plenty of scenes which carry with them much more finely focused intent. Such moments will usually establish the best parts of these characters through their ultimate bonding either through a smile or even a kiss, and it's here that Jaoui shows her real talent for creating resonating character drama. Unfortunately, with a plot that fails to drive anything forward, an abundance of inconsequential indulgences stops the feature from ever taking off.The strongest element of this exercise comes in the form of Jaoui and her fellow cast members who all share a nice sense of chemistry between each other, and do just as well on their own too. Jean-Pierre Bacri gets the most chuckles here, playing the bumbling but well-intentioned film-maker who is too often a slave to his eyes and those around him. Jamel Debbouze plays it close to many of his previous works, conveying the rather withdrawn but intelligent and gifted assistant to Bacri. As good as he works with Bacri however, it is his scenes with Florence Loiret (who plays as his love interest outside of a neglected marriage) that serve as key highlights, culminating in a sentimental kiss scene that carries with it an astounding amount of feeling. Jaoui herself is spot on and obviously knows the ins and outs of her character enough to complement those around her and also to give the feature a sense of purpose that is too often lacking from the script. As a whole, the entire cast give flawless performances that do the best with what they are given to work with; which unfortunately isn't that much, but fulfils the purpose that Jaoui seems to striving for.Despite the many wonderful features of Let's Talk About the Rain however, the film too often falters beneath its own weight. Heavy with character but extremely light on plot, themes or discussion, Jaoui's script too often feels imbalanced the point of stultifying irrelevancy. It's an effort that would have served much fairer on a small screen and limited to half its run time, and as such there's no denying that a lot of what goes on here is shameful navel-gazing for the sake of exercise. Leaving a screening of Let's Talk About the Rain, one is likely to have a feeling of fulfilment, but at the cost of quite a few wasted minutes. Pristine in its development of character and performances, there's a lot to love about Jaoui's latest work, but a lack of focus and point leaves the experience needlessly tiring. Followers of slow, meditative character studies will get a kick out of what is present here, but patience is certainly required and as such all but the most avid of cinephilles would be best to give this one a miss; Jaoui is speaking to a small audience here.- A review by Jamie Robert Ward (http://www.invocus.net)
2 out of 6 people found the following review useful: Talking, 12 April 2009 Author: stensson from Stockholm, Sweden
The French are good at it. These conversation movies, there most of the action comes from the talking and there the people only exist through that.Here we meet the high-heeled Parisian feminist, who according to the rules she keeps, has decided to have a boyfriend, decided to live alone, decided to have no children. A success story, worth a documentary to the old humbug disillusioned film-maker and the younger and more idealistic Karim of Arabian origin. By the way, Karim's mother works as a maiden in the household of the high-heeled feminist's sister.This is funny and intelligent and not sensational. You won't remember it, but in some ways, you won't forget it either.
1 out of 5 people found the following review useful: Clinging In The Rain, 23 October 2008 Author: writers_reign from London, England
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
Initially this third film from triple-threat Writer-Director-Actress Agnes Jaoui (and the seventh she has co-written with Jean-Pierre Bacri) seems reluctant to surrender its riches but two and a half to three reels in we're ready to roll over and play dead once again as the old team of Jaoui and Bacri deliver yet another feast for the eyes and the ears. Their great strength as actor-writers has always been observation and recording of the minutiae of the Human Condition as it applies to what appear to be randomly linked lives and once more they draw us subtly into another microcosm of unhappy lives verging on the dysfunctional and circling like moths the light of Jaoui's feminist writer turned wannabe politician whilst working through unfinished business with her sister and agreeing to a filmed interview with two inept filmmakers one of whom (Bacri) is having a clandestine affair with that same unhappily married sister. As is sometimes the way with Jaoui-Bacri movies not that much happens except that they train a microscope on real people - there's even a short sequence in which Jaoui and Bacri study an ant carrying a twig which could be seen as an oblique comment on what they are about. Overall another satisfying movie which I shall be adding to my DVD collection as soon as it becomes available.
7 out of 18 people found the following review useful: A very disappointing film from Jaoui and Bacri, 23 October 2008 Author: london29 from London
Agnes Jaoui's films 'Le Gout des autres' and 'Comme une image' are among my favourites of contemporary French cinema. They're smart, well-written, understated comedies that get right under the skin of middle class relationships and neuroses. As such, this, her latest, is an enormous disappointment. The humour is forced and the characters are under-drawn - what is a relatively short movie felt very long indeed. The subtlety of Jaoui's previous films was completely missing - it's as if she's aiming for a much broader audience. Fatally, almost all of the characters are completely unsympathetic - the one exception is an old North African woman played by Mimouna Hadji. I really couldn't care less about these people, their failing relationships or their political ambitions because they just didn't ring true. I suspect that this is a film that will find a limited audience outside France.
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