The Housekeeper (2002)

Overrated

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

A bitter-sweet bit of French male fantasy, with enough wisdom and honesty to acknowledge there's a difference between fantasy and reality. Jacques is middle aged and lonely, having been dumped by his wife five months earlier. He responds by trying to behave as if he's fine, but his mess of an apartment tells otherwise. So he answers an ad for a housekeeper, and discovers the utterly sexy and adorable 20 year old Laura who gradually works her way past Jacques' emotional walls, into first his bed, and then, perhaps, his heart (why she'd fall for him is left a bit loose and hazy). What raises this above the familiar are the lovely performances by the two leads, and Berri's willingness not to try to make the film more than it is – a simple tale of two very different people finding each other for a brief moment in the journeys of their lives.

This film is both comedy and a melodrama about a Parisian classical music producer who lives alone in his Paris flat. He hires a housekeeper without references or much experience. Jacques was brilliantly played by French actor, Jean-Pierre Bacri. The housekeeper, Laura, is perfectly played by Emilie Dequenne. Laura ends up moving into his flat where their musical tastes reflect their ages. They also have an intimate relationship which leads to a trip to Normandy Beach where they see his old friend. Most of the film is about Jacques and Laura's relationship. Jacques is overcoming from a painful breakup with his ex-wife. Laura needs a place to crash and he offers assistance. In the end, they become friends and lovers but I think they both needed each other's companionship for the loneliness felt at the time.

I almost gave up on this one forty minutes in. Don't you do that. The ending is superb.Premise: working class girl gets dumped by her boyfriend and seeks work by housekeeping.Well, that can lead to something better if you keep house for the right person.Jacques (Jean-Pierre Bacri) who recently got walked out on by his wife, and who, not so incidentally looks sixty--well, fifty-five--(actually he was barely fifty when this was made, but you get the point) gets his ad for a housekeeper answered by Laura (Emilie Dequenne) who is twentysomething--a young twentysomething.I guess there is not much else to say, and to be honest I decided I would force myself to watch the inevitable. But the director is Claude Berri who directed two of the best movies I ever saw: Manon of the Spring (1986) and Jean De Florette (1986).And so I stayed with it. At about the fifty minute mark the movie started to get interesting. I could feel that old guy/young girl love affair was going to take an unexpected fork in the road. (As Yogi said, if you come to a fork in the road, take it. The players have no choice.) Obviously, old guy/young girl can end only one way: young girl leaves old guy for young guy. This is biology. It will be painful.Claude Berri knows all this, and probably a lot better than I do. And so guess what? Well, I won't tell. But you will find that the last thirty-some minutes of this sexy romantic comedy delightful, and especially the very, very clever and most satisfying ending.Just prior to that Laura asks Jacques for his blessing. He won't give it, but she is right: he should. And then when we get the final "life is so...lifelike" grimace on Jacques's face, we can only smile.Emilie Dequenne is delightful as the strangely wise and very natural Laura, and Jean-Pierre Bacri is winning as the old guy who knows better, but on reflection should thank his lucky stars.(Note: Over 500 of my movie reviews are now available in my book "Cut to the Chaise Lounge or I Can't Believe I Swallowed the Remote!" Get it at Amazon!)

This little French film is very little indeed: a lo-cal plot that is predictable and pointless, lighter than air. The client is a 1-note depressive and his housekeeper/girlfriend is a young thing/prop in a dreary 2-note story. What exactly is the point of the story or why we care about either of them is not clear. Skip it.