In the French road movie, The Adventures of Felix, Felix (Sami Bouajila), a young gay man who lives a happy life with his boyfriend Daniel (Pierre-Loup Rajot) takes to the open road after he is laid off from his job, traveling by foot and thumb from Dieppe to Marseilles on the Mediterranean, looking for the father he never met. Daniel stays behind but agrees to meet his lover in Marseilles after his visit with his father. The film is divided into chapters marked by inter-titles such as "my little brother", "my sister", "my cousin", and "my grandmother" implying that Felix discovers a substitute family, though his contact with each member of the "family" has strong sexual overtones. While most encounters are engaging, no lasting connection seems to be made, and it is unclear how these chance meetings contribute to the character's growth.
Aside from a troubling incident in Rouen where he witnesses a murder and is afraid to report it to the police because he is an Arab, for Felix everything seems to be a joy, at least on the surface. HIV is no more annoying than having to pop in some pills each morning. Seventeen-year old boys are eager to jump into bed with him, people who pick him up while hitchhiking readily agree to stop for a lark in the park. Even a grandmother (Patachou) asks him to help her with her groceries while he is sitting on a park bench and confides her intimate life story to him without hesitation, not a plausible scenario in today's security-conscious world.
Although The Adventures of Felix is a warmhearted film and Sami Bouajila is a terrific actor, it feels more like a symbolic fantasy than a realistic depiction of characters in believable situations. Some actions are baffling. For example, it is not clear why Felix feels he has to steal a car in order to impress a teenager, tease him by inviting him to a gay disco, then refuse to have sex with him the same night. The car theft incident is presented in a lighthearted manner and the director seems to be saying that when perpetrators of antisocial or criminal acts are so charming, their actions ought to be without consequence.
The issue of safe sex is also not explicitly addressed. I have no problem with downplaying the effect of HIV and the way Felix includes it without having it stop him from living a full life is admirable. Yet we never really find out how the illness affects him in any way. Though we see the two road lovers tossing away their condoms after an encounter in a public area, it is not reassuring that the main protagonist does not feel HIV is important enough to mention to his lover, hardly a role model for others in the same situation. In one of the more entertaining episodes, Isabelle (Ariane Ascaride), a plainclothes policewoman picks him up en route to delivering her children to their fathers.
While Isabelle is a believable person, it is unfortunate that the only woman in the film (aside from the grandmother) is shown as having three children from three different fathers, perhaps as a counter balance to Felix's promiscuity. The conceit of the film is that both gays and straights can be flawed, yet this revelation does not in itself make for complex or interesting characters. Nevertheless, the dialogue with the children explaining their conception of their "daddy" is quite funny and some semblance of self reflection occurs when Felix acknowledges to Isabelle the reason for his not reporting the murder he saw in Rouen. In spite of its shortcomings, The Adventures of Felix is a beautifully photographed and involving film that, if not taken too seriously, is a pleasantly uplifting way to spend two hours.
Aside from a troubling incident in Rouen where he witnesses a murder and is afraid to report it to the police because he is an Arab, for Felix everything seems to be a joy, at least on the surface. HIV is no more annoying than having to pop in some pills each morning. Seventeen-year old boys are eager to jump into bed with him, people who pick him up while hitchhiking readily agree to stop for a lark in the park. Even a grandmother (Patachou) asks him to help her with her groceries while he is sitting on a park bench and confides her intimate life story to him without hesitation, not a plausible scenario in today's security-conscious world.
Although The Adventures of Felix is a warmhearted film and Sami Bouajila is a terrific actor, it feels more like a symbolic fantasy than a realistic depiction of characters in believable situations. Some actions are baffling. For example, it is not clear why Felix feels he has to steal a car in order to impress a teenager, tease him by inviting him to a gay disco, then refuse to have sex with him the same night. The car theft incident is presented in a lighthearted manner and the director seems to be saying that when perpetrators of antisocial or criminal acts are so charming, their actions ought to be without consequence.
The issue of safe sex is also not explicitly addressed. I have no problem with downplaying the effect of HIV and the way Felix includes it without having it stop him from living a full life is admirable. Yet we never really find out how the illness affects him in any way. Though we see the two road lovers tossing away their condoms after an encounter in a public area, it is not reassuring that the main protagonist does not feel HIV is important enough to mention to his lover, hardly a role model for others in the same situation. In one of the more entertaining episodes, Isabelle (Ariane Ascaride), a plainclothes policewoman picks him up en route to delivering her children to their fathers.
While Isabelle is a believable person, it is unfortunate that the only woman in the film (aside from the grandmother) is shown as having three children from three different fathers, perhaps as a counter balance to Felix's promiscuity. The conceit of the film is that both gays and straights can be flawed, yet this revelation does not in itself make for complex or interesting characters. Nevertheless, the dialogue with the children explaining their conception of their "daddy" is quite funny and some semblance of self reflection occurs when Felix acknowledges to Isabelle the reason for his not reporting the murder he saw in Rouen. In spite of its shortcomings, The Adventures of Felix is a beautifully photographed and involving film that, if not taken too seriously, is a pleasantly uplifting way to spend two hours.