Reviewed by PETER CALDER
(Herald rating:* * * *)
The extraordinarily reliable Veber, unquestionably the king of modern French screen comedy, turns in another cracker here which deserves to do as well as his recent successes The Dinner Game and The Closet.
That last film paired two of France's best serious actors, Gerard
Depardieu and Daniel Auteuil, as respectively a rugby-mad homophobe and the homosexual workmate he's forced to pretend he likes.
This one is made from a screenplay Veber wrote for his stars - Depardieu is an utterly likeable halfwit and the unsmiling action man Jean Reno is his straight guy - and it's pure pleasure to watch the magic they weave.
Depardieu's versatility (120 main roles in the past 30 years) has never been in doubt but his agility and his surefootedness are still a revelation here. The pace of the piece keeps it and us always slightly off balance and yet Depardieu's nimbleness - and ultimately the affectionate tenderness of his performance makes it much more comedy than farce.
Veber's odd couples are always a childlike character - often an imbecile - and a man of the world, and the outcomes always reward the ingenuousness of the former and teach the latter a thing or two. This time it's Quentin (Depardieu), a would-be bank robber who has something to learn about casing the joints he holds up. Arrested in the opening moments, he ends up sharing a cell with Ruby (Reno), a hood with a secret who's got offside with his gangster partners.
Needless to say the impassive, unsmiling Reno wants nothing to do with Quentin (the film's original title Tais-toi, which means "shut up", gives a clue to how he's feeling). He's sure Quentin's a police plant because, he reasons, no person could genuinely be so stupid and ingratiating. It's only when they bust out and go on the run that the two men who seem poles apart start to find they have something in common.
The subplot involving a young woman, possibly inserted to widen the film's appeal, seems something of a distraction. But it's rib-ticklingly funny, one of those films where subtitles serve a double function: they translate the French and they make sure you don't miss the lines drowned out by audience laughter.
CAST: Gerard Depardieu, Jean Reno
DIRECTOR: Francis Veber
RUNNING TIME: 87 min
RATING: M (violence and offensive language)
SCREENING: Berkeley Mission Bay, Bridgeway, Rialto from Thursday