Director: Azazel Jacobs
Distributor: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Duration: 113 minutes
French Exit (VOD) – Movie Review
Last month, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment still had us go through the motions of our best Monster Hunter moves for its live adaptation, to now settle down with a few more timid releases. The first one brings us to French Exit, a tale of a socialite who just wants to lay her head down but needs to get some unfinished business out of the way first. What for us first seemed like a fairly dull affair, soon turned into a quirky and delightful film that we still have not completely processed after watching it several days ago. While not a masterpiece, this is a movie that truly gets you thinking about the creative process behind a story such as this.
French Exit shows us the situation where a socialite, Frances Price (Michelle Pfeiffer), is running out of money to support her luxurious lifestyle. She is currently living off the inheritance money from her dead husband, while also supporting her son Malcolm (Lucas Hedge). Soon, however, she has the opportunity to sell some of her last possessions, and get a proper amount of money to live in a friend’s apartment in France to spend her remaining days. From the start, it’s quite clear that Frances intends on throwing in the towel and calling it quits; forever. She first wishes to spend her remaining money and then end her own life. We have to say, the movie becomes a lot more than just this simple synopsis.
The pacing and flow of this movie are somewhat peculiar. At first, the movie feels like a slow-paced drama, where you actually really struggle to get through the material that is dropped in front of you. You get little to no information as to what is going on, what happened in the past, and it’s even very hard to relate to the characters, as they all seem to be somewhat ‘douchey’. When you get closer to the halfway mark of the film, things will drastically change and you start embracing these oddball characters as they evolve throughout the story. The plot finally draws you in, the movie’s quirkiness surfaces and this becomes a very likable story. Even though there are still many plotholes to be filled, the overall atmosphere changes drastically after the aforementioned halfway mark of the film, and you’ll get more information and a goal as to where this movie is headed towards. We do have to say, casual viewers expecting an authentic drama will be somewhat disappointed, and those expecting a regular comedy will be as well. We realize the movie is dubbed both a drama and a comedy, it’s also something else that is hard to classify. It’s a unique experience that does hit the right buttons when required but the original synopsis of the film is not well-described to encapsulate the genre, as well as the events that are to unfold in this movie.
Acting performances are quite good in the movie. While at first it felt like Michelle Pfeiffer had sunken quite low with the persona she was portraying, we had to revise our opinion as the story went on. We see a lot of character evolution in this film, mainly when it comes to Pfeiffer’s character, as well as the one played by Lucas Hedge, who acts as her son, Malcolm Price. We see a lot of strange and witty caricatures pass the revue in this film, and we simply liked all of them. While shallow at first, they soon got some extra dimensions, all thanks to their respective cast member.
As we viewed the VOD version of French Exit, we are unaware of any special features that may or may not be included when buying a physical copy of the film. That being said, there is not that much more to say about the movie than the story itself, but some extra background information would be quite nice. While the story, in all its quirkiness, may be interesting in its own right, we do hope some deleted scenes or outtakes make it to a physical version.
Conclusion
French Exit may look like a slow-burn drama at first, it eventually shows its true colors and will take you on a very witty and interesting adventure. That being said, the slow introduction may put off certain viewers, creating a certain threshold you’ll have to get over to fully enjoy the story that is unfolding. The variety of strange characters in this movie slowly pulls you in, and before you know it the credits start rolling. We did very much enjoy this film, but during its first half it was unsure what direction the movie was headed towards, and this was very noticeable. We hope with the release of a DVD or Blu-ray version, some additional information is given in the special features section.
French Exit (VOD) - Movie Review,
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