The Sweet Escape

Michel is fifty, a graphic designer, and lives in the city. He has been interested in aircraft since childhood and wanted to be a pilot; it did not happen. One day he sees a canoe online and buys it. He assembles it at home, buys equipment, reads books and studies maps. He sets off without telling his wife. He travels a few hours on the river and comes ashore; there is a small inn there. He decides to stay. The journey ends there and the rest of the film takes place at the inn. Bruno Podalydès writes, directs and plays the lead. Sandrine Kiberlain and Agnès Jaoui are in the cast. The humour is built on preparation; the narrative shows directly that buying equipment and making plans is more appealing than the journey itself. Podalydès is a director of small scale comedies and this belongs to that line. The matter it treats is middle age; the film gives it not as a crisis but as a postponed wish. The people at the inn are the second strand and each of them is living their own escape. The river scenes are calm and long; the narrative promises adventure nowhere. Its limit is plot; the narrative is thin and some sections repeat. Who it is for: viewers who like French comedy and quiet narratives. Who it is not for: little happens, the pace is slow, and the humour very dry.