It's quite possible that this movie wouldn't have got made if Jean-Pierre Darroussin hadn't agreed to play the lead. I'm basing this on the fact that writer-director Anne Novion lacks the profile of the leading female directors in France - Danielle Thompson, Toni Marshall, Anne Fontaine, Nicole Garcia, Ann Vernoux, Agnes Jaoui to name only a handful - and if that weren't sufficient handicap she's opted for one of those 'little' films where nothing happens all at once. For the record Darrossin has established a routine of taking his daughter, Anais Demoustiet, to a different European location on each of her birthdays and this year it is Sweden and a tiny coastal village at that. Darroussin has an idea to combine the holiday with searching for Viking treasure so he has brought along a metal detector. The first hiccup occurs when they arrive at their rented house to find it occupied by two women friends. They get over this and make the best of pitching in; daughter is coming up to that 'awkward' age which means the inevitable encounter with teenage boys; one of the women fancies Darroussin whilst the other stumbles across an ex-lover now happily married. And there you have it, nothing really wrong with it but I doubt you'll be killed in the rush in the unlikely event that it plays your local Multiplex.
Review of Les grandes personnes
