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As Karim (Jamel Debbouze) and Michel (Jean-Pierre Bacri) begin planning their documentary, they’re standing in the rain, beneath the eave of Hotel Le Terminus. Yes, it’s a metaphor, and yes, their project — a portrait of feminist writer Agathe Villanova (writer-director Agnès Jaoui, also this film’s writer-director) — will depict broadly defined cultural tensions. She’s headed home in the south of France to tend to her dead mother’s estate, mend fences with her sister Florence (Pascale Arbillot), and take something of a vacation with her boyfriend Antoine (Frédéric Pierrot). It’s soon clear that anyone remotely close to Agathe feels neglected, a condition only exacerbated as she contemplates running for office. Editor Karim has a particular bone to pick, as his mother Mimouna (Mimouna Hadji) is the sisters’ longtime family housekeeper: He’s frustrated that Agathe used to call him “boy,” and with his mother’s continued sense of loyalty to her. His questions are repeatedly contentious (as to her benefitting from “certain quotas in politics,” he wonders whether she might be taking “someone else’s spot, someone more qualified?”). When she’s not resenting her sister’s convenient “fragility,” Agathe is capable, intellectual and self-reflective when it suits her. (“This world isn’t ideal,” she says. “We need to force people to act the way they should.”) The filmmaker Michel has his own political concerns, namely his ex’s custody of their son, even as Antoine is increasingly miserable in his inadvertent role as Agathe’s assistant. Each of the bourgie types (like those in Jaoui’s previous films) has a lesson to learn having to do with intimacy, trust and generosity, but none of their trajectories is especially compelling.
—Cindy Fuchs

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Rating:	No Rating
Director:	Agnès Jaoui
Cast:	Jean-Pierre Bacri, Jamel Debbouze, Agnès Jaoui, Pascale Arbillot, Guillaume De Tonquedec, Frédéric Pierrot, Mimouna Hadji, Florence Loiret, Laurent Jarroir, Anne Werner
Release Date:	June 18, 2010 (NY)
Running Time:	110
Distributor:	IFC Films
Genre:	Comedy, Drama