Pretty Good

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

After watching the very enjoyable 'My wife is an actress' I had high hopes for 'Happily ever after', alas, the experience was disappointing. Attal started by creating interesting, complex, and even likable characters but was not able to shed any light on his premise, that is 'does or can monogamy work and if how' and cops out in the end with a nonsensical elevator ride into the sky with Gabrielle and l'inconnu Johnny Depp inside. Attal was able to set up its premise nicely during the first half of the movie, then, like feeling himself that he actually has nothing to say really, tried to save the day with whimsical 'musical' numbers, mostly terrible sentimental songs to terrible sentimental montages. He might have tried to make ironical statements with that but it comes over as if he's trying to appeal to the masses and feed them some 'Amalie' moments. The film presents itself very energetic from the beginning, with excellent cinematography and lighting, though a bit too fast cut. All female roles - with the exceptions of Attals real world wife Charlotte Gainsbourg seem to be afterthoughts as he himself admits in an interview and it shows. While they could have added some insight into the 'premise' they haven't been asked to do so by the writer/director.

"Ils se marièrent et eurent beaucoup d'enfants" ("Happily Ever After") is a cleverly written examination of contemporary views on love, lust, marriage, infidelity, and the single life. Writer/Director/Actor Yvan Attal has come up with a winner, an entertaining, funny, and ultimately thoughtful treatise on how we cope with partnering.Three men work together in a car dealership. Vincent (Yvan Attal) is the apparently happily married man with a beautiful wife Gabrielle (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and child. Georges (Alain Chabat) on the other hand is in a tumultuous marriage with Nathalie (Emmanuelle Seigner) who has gender issues that go far beyond feminism and negatively influence their child. Fred (Alain Cohen) is single, bedding every lovely woman he encounters, balancing trysts between mornings, afternoons, and evenings and is deeply envied for his Don Juanism. But Fred actually longs for the sense of belonging that married men enjoy.The men's lives intertwine on many levels. Most important, we discover that Vincent has a lover (Angie David) despite his idyllic married life and while it is Georges whom one would expect to seek solace from a lover, he remains faithful to his nagging wife! Gabrielle senses Vincent's affair and encounters a sexy man in a music shop (Johnny Depp) who begins to preoccupy her thoughts. She is a real estate broker and comes close to an assignation with a client but remains faithful. All the while she daydreams about her brief encounter with Depp and satisfies her wandering eye with those memories. Fred discovers that one of his paramours is pregnant and happily decides to leap into the married fray. The only 'adults' sharing advice here are Vincent's long married parents (Anouk Aimée and Claude Berri in very welcome comeback cameos!) and it is this 'standard' that adds the final humor to the film.The manner in which all three men deal with their living situations asks as many questions as it gives answers. Attal finds joy in all forms of coupling and is careful to offer all sides of decisions his characters make in arriving at what provides them happiness. This is a smart movie with terrific twists. There is just enough slapstick (an all out food fight between Vincent and Gabrielle - real life husband and wife team Attal and Gainsbourg - that proves to be one of the fun-loving bits of silliness that binds their marriage) to keep the mood light. Not a profound film, but a joyous French comedy handled by total pros! In French and English with subtitles. Recommended. Grady Harp

As much as one would like to respond to Ivan Attal's films, one is puzzled about his choice of material. M. Attal seems to be at the center of all his films, and that, perhaps, works against him, as it is one way to lose grasp on the subject that he, as a director is trying to present. Basically this is a film about duplicity and deceit. The cliché about the sexual French man is perpetuated here as we get to know Vincent, M. Attal's character.If you haven't seen the film, perhaps you would like to stop here.At the beginning of the picture we are taken to a club where we meet Gabrielle, a slim and elegant woman, who is being invited to a drink by the fellow to her left. At that same time Vincent suddenly appears at her side who ends up being rewarded in taking her home. We had no warning that they are a couple.Vincent is seen lounging with two close friends, Georges, the hotel manager, and his coworker, Fred. Inevitably, when guys talk, the topic almost invariably is about women one, or perhaps, all of them have managed to take to bed. Fred, the homely one of this trio, seems to be the luckiest one. He can book afternoon and evening trysts. Our conclusion is either he knows how to please, or is enormously endowed. Gabrielle and Vincent are an unhappily married couple. They are living together in the same apartment, but they are miles apart in mostly everything. There doesn't seem to be any love between them after a few years. Vincent loves to do practical jokes to both his son and to his wife. What Vincent doesn't tell his wife, or his buddies is that he is having his own love affair with a masseuse. Their passionate encounters reveal an incredible passion. One wonders how Vincent finds time from his job and from Gabrielle to be with wife and mistress, although Viagra might be one solution.The only ray of hope in the film is when Gabrielle, shopping for music at the Virgin Megastore stops to listen a sample CD. As she is enjoying the song, a mysterious and handsome man stops at the same listening station to sample the same song. He disappears and she goes after him, but nothing happens. Then, at the end, she has an appointment to show an apartment and who happens to be the would be tenant? You guessed it! They are seen on the tiny elevator going up and up into a heavenly ride.This is a film about miscommunication and one dimensional characters. Charlotte Gainsbourg, is always a welcome presence to any films. She projects intelligence in everything she does. Ivan Attal, as an actor is good. The friends Alain Chabat and Alain Cohen, as Georges and Fred do a fairly decent job. Emmanuelle Seigner doesn't have much to do. Angie David and Aurore Clement play Vincent's mistress and her mother. Claude Berri and Anouk Aimee are seen briefly as Vincent's parents without any justification, or perhaps, M. Attal is trying to show us that his parents by staying together for so many years are bored with one another as we don't see them exchange a word, or much less any loving glances as we watch them having dinner in a fancy restaurant.Johnny Depp is seen effectively in his two scenes. He doesn't say much, only a couple of words, but he makes an impact that none of the other characters made during the film.

This is the third film from triple-threat (Writer-Director-Actor) Yvan Attal and arguably his best. Once again he has cast his real-life partner (they have just had a child) Charlotte Gainsbourg as his screen wife and cast fellow triple-threat wda Alain Chabat as his best friend. Whilst Vincent (Attal) and Gabrielle (Gainsbourg) have a seemingly ideal marriage Georges (Chabat) and Nathalie (Emmanuelle Seigner) are more tempestuous and Nathalie's nagging is ever present. Both couples have a child hence the title, They Were Married And Had Many Children, which is also the French equivalent of the fairy-tale ending 'and so they lived happily ever after'. The third man, Fred (Alain Cohen) is single and has no shortage of girls. This is the broad outline. The twist, such as it is requires Fred to envy the married state, Vincent to lead a double life that fools even Georges and Fred and Georges, the logical one to cheat on a nagging wife to be faithful. Most of the five principals are virtually unknown outside France - Chabat appeared in 'Le Gout des Autres', Attal in 'Bon Voyage' - but Anouk Aimee who plays Vincent's mother is certainly known if only for 'A Man And A Woman' whilst Berri, of course, directed 'Jean de Florette' and 'Manon des Sources'. Attal has done a workmanlike job of exploring male bonding - the men spend hours playing football - and precarious relationships and it's the kind of film that can find an audience abroad. 7/10