Susan Moncur Movies

Though unemployed, Pierre is buoyant, outgoing, affable, and experienced with women. This last is a point he never fails to drive home to Benoit, his gentle, hapless best friend. In an effort to compensate for his romantic failures, Benoit turns to the newspaper personals ads, and meets Marie. Even though his courtship of her is uninspiring, Marie agrees to marry Benoit. Naturally, Pierre meets Marie often. As he gets to know her, he discovers that he is recklessly in love with her, and he arranges his life around seeing her and being near her. He is so overtaken with feeling that he even corners total strangers in order to speak of his love. Benoit -completely unaware of this- suggests that he keep Marie company while he is at work. When everything comes out into the open, the friendship of the two men governs the outcome. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

This gentle, mildly satiric French comedy follows the romantic adventures of a group of men who have gone with their children to spend the summer in their vacation homes on the Atlantic coast. Some of the men are divorced, some still married, but all are open to meeting new women while their wives and girlfriends are back in Paris. Much of the humor derives from the reversal of the usual situation - - the men are off with the children while the women are back home tied to work and career. The film is loosely structured and episodic as it simultaneously follows the stories of a number of characters. Particularly engaging in the large cast are Michel Robin as an eccentric publisher with a avidly jealous wife and Helene Vincent as a frumpy divorcee constantly on the prowl for a new mate. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi