Group therapy with men on the verge of a nervous breakdown [critique]

Audrey Dana's comedy, in competition at the Alpe d'Huez 2022 festival, brings together a great cast. It arrives this weekend unencrypted, on France 2.

It starts very strongly with an ultra dynamic montage of men adrift: a lonely metro driver in spite of himself and who is afraid of being underground; a retiree who spends his days on his sofa and has stopped washing since the death of his wife; a father who can no longer bear family life; a homosexual who grew up in a very traditional family and does not dare to come out… To avoid losing control forever, all these little people will find themselves in a group therapy in the middle of nature, led by a woman with astonishing methods.

Audrey Dana (Under the girls' skirts, If I were a man) brings together in Men on the verge of a nervous breakdown a surprisingly homogeneous cast – Thierry Lhermitte, Ramzy Bedia, François-Xavier Demaison, Laurent Stocker, Pascal Demolon, Michael Gregorio and Marina Hands – and manages to create a very successful group effect. The first part, that of discovering the other, is actually the most enjoyable: we argue, we laugh, we cry and we look at each other's navels very naturally. The sequel is more programmatic (inner conflicts must be resolved, sometimes a little artificially) and less inspired in its production, while the film sets out to examine the “male”-be contemporary through these guys aged 18 to 70.

A project obviously a little too pharaonic for its own good, but difficult to completely resist the general good humor released by this feel-good moviewhich manages to balance the dramaturgy to avoid caricature.

Here is its trailer:

If I were a man: Audrey Dana and Alice Belaïdi, the two make a pair [interview]