Sometimes, when a character has a breakdown on-screen, it is totally fascinating. It usually leaves me wondering where the characters friends and family really are; how can this person fall to pieces without anyone to help?
In Le Grand Soir, the family members are there to help – in a way. Jean-Pierre is a salesman who breaks down spectacularly after rapidly losing everything he has to live for – his wife, custody of his child, his home and his job. Luckily for him, he has a brother. Not, claiming himself to be the oldest punk with a dog in Europe, helps him to become free.
This is a very funny film. The idea that a seemingly middle-class person in a suit makes such a huge change in his life so smoothly seemed a bit doubtful, but the characters are hilarious and, yet again for MIFF, this film really has heart. I don’t hold much hope for Jean-Pierre at the end of the film, but I feel like he and Not may well survive wandering streets and lanes long into the future.
ireckonthat 