The Good Wife: a school comedy [Critique]

Binoche as director of a household institution soon threatened by the wind of the social revolution…

The good wifein theaters on March 11, 2020, enjoyed great success in theaters despite the first confinement and the closure of cinemas, making up for it throughout the summer. He will return this Monday evening on France 3. Here is the review of First.

From Juliet's Belly (2003), Martin Provost does not deviate from his line by showing women confronted with violence (social, artistic, masculine) and their slow path towards emancipation. With Midwifehis previous film, he changed his tone: room for fantasy. The Good Wife confirms this new inclination. He entrusts Juliette Binoche with the role of Paulette Van Der Beck, a housewife school director responsible for preparing young girls for their job as housewife, submissive and smiling. Only, here we are, in 1968. Morals have evolved, school is less successful, the yé-yé spirit is in the hearts and in the heads… When her husband dies suddenly and thanks to a reunion with a childhood sweetheart, Paulette Van Der Beck tells herself that she may have missed something. And Martin Provost cheerfully threads the clichés into this programmatic feminist comedy where the pretty fifty-something swaps suits for jeans, where the spinster sister-in-law begins to dream of Prince Charming and where the killjoy nun ends up swallowing her old school conservatism. We think a lot about Potiche, minus the scathing irony and nastiness. What remains is the rhythm given by the staging and by the energy of Juliette Binoche who confirms her under-exploited talent for comedy. She brings in her wake the poetic Yolande Moreau and the whimsical Noémie Lvovsky, their dejection relegating the characters of the young girls to the background, somewhat artificial counterpoints.

Trailer for The Good Wife :