Beautiful Minds

Louis drives a hearse; he does his job, talks to nobody and his life is orderly. Igor is a philosopher; because of cerebral palsy his speech and movement are difficult, and he makes a living delivering by bicycle. The two meet through an accident. Louis has a coffin to take from Geneva to the south, and Igor gets in the car; he has somewhere to be. They talk for the length of the journey. Igor asks questions and Louis has to answer. Each of them has put something off in his own life. Bernard Campan and Alexandre Jollien direct and play the two leads themselves. The film's most concrete side is its actor: Alexandre Jollien really is a philosopher and lives with cerebral palsy; his books have been published and the part rests largely on his own experience. Bernard Campan worked for many years as a comedian in France and this is among his first works as a director. The narrative does not give a lesson on disability; Igor speaks of his condition but the film does not build it as an issue. The humour is in trading remarks and neither character pities the other. The road film shape is used, and the hearse holds the balance between the comic and the serious. Its limit is structure; the narrative follows the expected stages of the genre and the ending is emotional. Who it is for: viewers who like French road films and two hander narratives. Who it is not for: it is predictable, little happens, and some sections are didactic.