Le Coût de la vie

A typical French relationship film, where we observe a group of people, intertwining their destinies, with the central theme of the whole film being the relationship of these individuals to property and money. One is simply a penny-pincher, one can't think about anything but material possessions, and one is, on the contrary, a realist. It has a decent cast, although it's not the top French league, and it is well-acted and directed. However, the film is harmed by the screenplay, which introduces a number of motifs and characters, only for the viewer to realize at the end of the film that practically none of these storylines (except maybe the factory owner, who only realizes upon retiring that there are people who cannot be bought) are satisfactorily concluded. Modern commercial filmmaking often leaves the door open for a potential sequel in case of a good audience response, but here it's not about leaving the door open, rather the feeling that someone has cut the film in two-thirds and it lacks an ending. As for the genre, I wouldn't label it as a comedy, but rather a drama with a series of tragicomic moments mostly delivered by Fabrice Luchini in the role of a bizarre greedy, penny-pinching man. Overall impression: 60%. (18/02/2010)