‘À l’abordage’: Film Review

Refreshing as a river dip on a hot afternoon, but also somewhat melancholic, as though maybe it's the final swim of the summer, Guillaume Brac's shrewd, witty"À l'abordage" is a cheerful portrait of mild disappointment, the sort a young generation must encounter before developing a bit. Additionally, it is a lovely showcase for the talents of its varied, fresh-faced cast, whose own stories and adventures led to Brac and co-screenwriter Catherine Paillé's loose-limbed story.

The name, which contrasts between"All aboard!" And"Strike!" , was allegedly the battle-cry of French pirates if they brought up alongside a enemy boat. Not that there is any bloodthirstiness hereinstead the words conjure up a kids' game of make-believe, as if those alluring, benignly muddled twentysomethings are play-acting their own bravado as definitely as children athletic plastic eyepatches waving cardboard cutlasses around.

She rushes off to catch her train in the morning, but Felix hatches a plan to go see her, uninvited, at the scenic South of France village in which she's vacationing with her loved ones.

He uttered a primary partner, his very best buddy Chérif (a beautiful, soft and considerate twist out of Salif Cissé) who, despite misgivings, reluctantly dunks from his part time grocery to combine Felix for the excursion. Low on money (they are traveling with borrowed tents and camping equipment ) they've signed up for a rideshare -- much to the aggravation of the own driver, gawky mama's boy Édouard (Édouard Sulpice), that had been anticipating two women.

Obviously, Alma -- that which we find to be a tiny brat -- interprets Felix's grand romantic gesture too creepy, that can be the blow to his own braggadocio. Meanwhile in the campsite, Chérif becomes near handsome young mother Helena (Ana Blagojevic), while Édouard, who actually sleeps wrapped into the drapes he had been expected to send to his overbearing mother, begins to snip through the apron strings a bit, as he resides with another two despite himself.

Like Brac's past fiction attributes (he works in documentary),"À l'abordage" is loosely at the Rohmerian dating comedy-drama convention, just here, it is updated for the 21st century and also aged-down to signify the vanguard of all France's Generation Z. Like Rohmer, Brac displays real fondness for his characters, even if they are being less than likable, but such as Rohmer, he does not let them completely off the hook. There's some kind-hearted satire here, revealing Brac's enthusiastic, wry eye to its inherent silliness of this manly one-upmanship that underpins this endearingly un-macho trio.

You will find funny episodes of thwarted rivalry when Felix goes canyoning with Alma's buddies, or if he bike-races biking enthusiast Édouard towards the peak of a hill. And you will find honest small nuggets of wisdom from the disagreements Felix has Chérif, such as when he accuses him crushing on Helena as a part of a continuing pattern of befriending inaccessible girls to spare himself possible rejection. So although the movie is told from a male perspective, and its feminine characters are somewhat secondary, the unreconstructed,'90s teenage sex humor vibe of the primary setup soon gives way to a far more fair, modest, contemporary fantasy of cherchez la femme.

But the movie wears all of its own issues and opinions gently, allowing its characters mostly be that they are, not what they signify. This is particularly novel concerning a racial part that's neither ignored nor foregrounded. Chérif and Felix's blackness doesn't event any outright racism, but their utter incongruity from the differently blindingly white environs of a French countryside holiday place is unmistakable. It provides a plangent, modern note to a traditional story that's about attempting to work where you're welcome and where it is possible to belong, and finding, together with some bemusement, the treasure has been aboard your ship all together.