Director: Jean-François Richet
Distributor: Walk This Way
Duration: 105 minutes
Un moment d’égarement (One Wild Moment) (VoD) – Movie Review
One Wild Moment (‘Un moment d’égarement’) is a French movie dating from 2015. It’s a remake of the comedy-drama film with the same title from 1977. In 1984, an American remake called ‘Blame it on Rio’ was already made, giving the movie a little twist. While the original movie was directed by Claude Berri, the 2015 remake was produced by his son Thomas Langmann. It feels like making a remake of this film in this day and age, gives people a lot to discuss about, seeing as it touches subject such as sexual relations between underage girls and older men. Movies such as this are becoming a tad more relevant again, as they are now being offered on Video on Demand services.
In the movie we meet Antoine (François Cluzet) and Laurent (Vincent Cassel), two good friends enjoying their vacation in Corsica with their daughters Louna (Lola Le Lann) and Marie (Alice Isaaz). What was supposed to be a relaxing and fun summer, quickly turns complicated when Louna, daughter of Antoine, seduces Laurent. While Laurent sees this a just a flirt, Louna finds herself having feelings for her dad’s friend. Louna decides to put her trust in her father and tells him about her lover, without mentioning his name. Her father knows something is up and will go to any lengths to find out who his daughter’s lover is.
The movie’s beginning and ending is rather slow, making it kind of boring. The story between Laurent and Louna starts blossoming quickly after a slow start, but then it starts to feel a little tedious again. It feels like a lot of unnecessary scenes were put in. Of course they had to, since there wouldn’t be a full length movie without those scenes. You end up feeling like you’re bored halfway through the movie, because it becomes a bit repetitive and uninteresting.
The main themes here are drama, comedy and romance. There’s plenty of drama to be found between the characters. Comedy, not so much. The same goes for romance. Besides the love Louna feels for her father’s best friend, we don’t see a lot of romance happening. Definitely since Louna comes off more as having no depth and just being a 17 year old girl having feelings for an older man.
One Wild Moment does shed a light on a delicate matter; relationships between underage girls and older men. The sexual part of these relationships is put forward here, making it an even more delicate matter. Clearly, in the movie different views from different characters are shown. The audience will most likely side with either of these views, leaving the matter open to personal interpretation.
The movie starts with the song La Mer by Charles Trenet, immediately giving it an older kind of feeling. But then the rest of the movie uses quite popular and recent music like Diamond by Rihanna. Even though the overall soundtrack sounds good, the use of songs comes off as a bit sloppy.
Besides the soundtrack, we also get to enjoy some of the beautiful views of Corsica. Sometimes this feels like a nice break from the dialogues, but often it also feels like the landscapes were put in to make the movie slower.
While the actors’ names might not ring a bell for everyone, actors François and Vincent are actually quite famous in their home country France, having played in multiple box-office movies. We have to say that all four main characters gave a great performance in this movie. With Vincent, Lola and Alice giving us an excellent acting performance, we feel like François fell behind a little. It’s not that his acting was bad, it just seemed less compatible with the movie. His character, being the dramatic, protective father, seems a bit over the top. And even if that was the idea, it feels like he didn’t quite get it right.
Conclusion
You will most likely enjoy the performances of our main characters here. While this movie itself may not succeed in being very enjoyable, it could potentially open up debates between friends and family about the matter that’s presented. In today’s world, this is something we seem to be confronted with more than ever, making the decision to make a remake a reasonable one.
Un moment d'égarement (One Wild Moment) (VoD) - Movie Review,
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