April 18, 2011

Movie Review: Potiche

Potiche with Catherine Deneuve is quite possibly the stupidest movie I've ever seen. It begins with Deneuve in a polyester track suit jogging through the park in the spring and spying birds, squirrels, rabbits (doing it), a deer, etc., ad nauseum. And each time she sees something she stops, and her face says, "Oh my! How lovely!" Make me gag. (BTW, she's jogging with rollers in her hair and a schmata on her head.) It's all very kitschy, intentionally (I hope) but just doesn't work at all. The film takes place in 1977 but has a very 50s Leave It To Beaver feel right down to the happy, twinkly music.
It's about a woman whose husband is a philanderer (turns out, so is she) and who has a medical condition so she takes over the company which was started by her father. Confusing? Don't worry about it. Who cares.
Gerard Depardieu is the mayor of the town and someone who she had an affair with years ago. Whew! He looks bad. He looks like someone put a bicycle pump up his butt and pumped a whole lot of air into him. Big, big man. And really, doesn't he have the worst hair in the history of leading men? He always has, and it's still like that, kind of a Prince Valiant thing. Not attractive.
Catherine looks pretty good, a little heavy but hell, she's 67. A little too much lip-plumping too, but she still has great hair.
All in all, take a pass on this film.
Catherine, très stupide! What were you thinking?
Zero out of 5 stars for Potiche.

No comments: