My Wife Maurice

Rating:
Summary: "My feminine side is very developed."
Review: Chinless French businessman, Georges Audefey (Philippe Chevallier) takes his Amazonian mistress, Emmanuelle (Alice Evans) to Venice for a sleazy weekend. He hopes to keep it cheap by placating her avaricious streak with cheesy souvenirs. She, however, can't wait to go on a mega-spending spree. The fun-filled weekend comes to an abrupt halt, and Georges returns to Paris to placate his suspicious wife Marion (Virginie Lemoine). Emmanuelle follows in hot pursuit. She's determined to introduce herself to Marion and break up the unhappy couple.

While Marion is away, Emmanuelle phones and announces she's heading over to spill the beans. Georges grabs itinerant, bearded part time charity worker, Maurice Lappin (Regis Laspales), and persuades him to pose as his wife. Georges hopes to pass Maurice off as Marion so that Emmanuelle will vent her spleen without causing any further domestic problems.

"My Wife Maurice" from director Jean Marie Poire is a riotous French farce complete with men dressing as women, mistaken identities, a jealous German paratrooper, Johnny Zucchini (Gotz Otto), and a set of pompous in-laws. Maurice plays a favourite stock character in French farce--the well-meaning idiot who is suddenly elevated to dizzying heights of power, influence and attention. The first 20 minutes or so of the film are both frantic and incredibly funny. The humour lost its momentum for a short period, but then charged up once more. "My Wife Maurice" lacks the originality of Poire's other--brilliant and inspired film--"The Visitors"--but it still gave me the best laugh I've had in weeks, and so it earns 5 stars. If you are a fan of French farce, give "My Wife Maurice" a try. In French with English subtitles. Let the mayhem begin...--displacedhuman

Rating:
Summary: A chainsaw, a dress, and a jacuzzi...
Review: For as low of a score that this film carries, I hand to confirm that I had watched the same film. For some strange reason, I witnessed a completely different film than the one mentioned from other critics. I thoroughly enjoyed this French farce that was boldly colorful, imaginatively creative, and passionately contrived. While I did find it at times hard to read the subtitles and see the action together, I did not see it as a completely spoiled moment for the film. The comedy was quick, the plot was well rounded, and I especially loved the characters that director Jean-Marie Poiré brought to the screen. It was so wonderfully absurd that it kept me glued to the screen wondering what would happen next. I will admit that this is a rather predictable film, but what Poiré has done is taken a used story and restyled the "fun" fit in this modern day of cinema. This suddenly transformed into a zany adventure that kept my head buzzing, my mind engrossed, and my funny bones in action.

The best part of this film is simply the characters. There are two power-players in this film that each bring something unique and original to the screen and ultimately make Ma femme...s'appelle Maurice worth watching. The first is the hysterical Régis Laspalès whom nearly steals the entire film away from everyone else. He takes the role of Maurice and transforms it into a modern day Robin Williams vehicle. From the moment that I meet him in a little bread shoppe until the final climactic moments, I was captured. He controlled the screen with such brilliance and pizzazz that I was surprised that I had not encountered him in any other films. He was genuine, which is sometimes a hard asset to find in comedians today. The second character that I deeply enjoyed was Gotz Otto. He plays the possibly sexually confused Johnny that gets some drink into him and falls for the closest lady to him. That just happens to be Maurice. Together, these two play superbly well against each other. Their chemistry is better than some matches found in Hollywood today. I could feel their moments clicking from across the screen and to my delight it worked. They were extremely funny together adding an extra layer of icing to an already hysterically sugary film.

Another aspect that I truly felt compelled about in this film was the colors set against the backdrop of the whimsical adventure. I think I have been involved in too many darkly grey films lately here in America, and it was finally nice to see the bold and vibrant colors of life clearly defined on the screen. The hues of red, yellow, and orange perfectly decorated not just the surroundings, but also the characters as well. I think that is some of the reason for the amazing performances, because of the colorful environment that they had to work in. The colors brightened the sets, but also this film. At times it nearly felt like a fairy tale film (with the colors and magic castle feel that the apartment had), especially with the color of love painted in nearly every scene. Poiré knew what he was doing, and while this is definitely no Amelie, it does show the colorful cinematic technique that the French have so proudly called their own.

So, we have some very funny characters combined with some beautiful sets that seem to be used to accentuate the characters (Hollywood, you could be taking notes here), what else was there? I enjoyed the themes of this film. For anyone that enjoyed Mrs. Doubtfire and The Birdcage (and the French counterpart), this is the film for you to see. It combines the ideals of homosexuality with a farce about life. It brings these ideas of cross-dressing and gender swapping into a very colorful light that will make you think and laugh at the same time. This is not a negative aspect, but rather a very poignant element that Poiré chose to add to this film. He could have simply gone main stream, but the elements that he chose to uses were brilliant. Coupled with some random moments that make this film stand on its own two legs (the entire chainsaw scene was hysterical and very random), My Wife Maurice is a comedy that will have you laughing for a very long time.

Overall, I was very impressed. This was a gem that I had never heard about that graced my DVD player well. The overall feel of this film was happiness and whimsy, and it was exactly what I needed at the end of the day. While it is not a flawless film, the problems are so small that you probably wouldn't even notice them if you tried. Do not just look at these negative markings as a sign that this is a poor film, check it out for yourself, and you may find (like me) that this was a perfect comedy.

Grade: **** out of *****

Rating:
Summary: Slapschtick rerun of a tired tale
Review: MY WIFE MAURICE is a high budget, scenery dependent farce from the usually reliable French cinema that goes so far over the top that interest lags after about 15 minutes.

The story is a retread of the old 'dress an ugly man like a woman and he'll pass so that a misdeed won't misfire' story. This time a boorish businessman (Philippe Chevallier) is traipsing around Venice with his consort (Alice Evans)- an obvious gold digger dame tolerating the older geek for a time with his money. When the lothario must return to Paris to calm his suspicious wife (Virginie Lemoine), the babe goes ballistic (complete with chainsaw!) and demands to meet the wife she'd like to exclude form her plans. In order to provide a front the man entices another ugly gook (Regis Laspales) to shave, dress and pass as his wife. The rest is only too obvious to relate.

Much of the slapstick a la Keystone Cops meet La Cage aux folles would be tolerable if there were a single character about whom we could care. But given the absence of that, this movie just comes across as a French pastry that failed to rise. Grady Harp, January 2005.