It seems to be just my luck this Film Festival season to be picking films of such obscurity that leave me absolutely flabbergasted once the credits roll in on the screen. But alas, I must give credit where credit is due…this film, Les Herbes Folles, is one that is light, comedic, and, despite many surprises that will leave you scratching your head, simply delightful. Based on a book by Christian Gailly, Les Herbes Folles tells the unique tale of a rather eccentric romance that blossoms over a lost wallet.

The beginning of the movie is incredibly encapsulating as it shows Marguerite, a fiery and single dentist, and how she first loses her purse with that all important wallet inside it. It then goes on to show Georges, an old married man with a tinge of crazy inside, and how he comes across that same wallet in a shopping mall parking lot. Instantly attracted to the photographs he finds inside, Georges agonizes over if and how he should contact Marguerite. What follows is, as the TIFF synopsis so wonderfully puts it, “their elaborate dance of attraction and rejection, hesitation and impulsiveness”.

The plot line of Les Herbes Folles is one that holds incredible potential. The first few instances of Georges’ attempts to contact and reach out to Marguerite is simply hysterical! His character as an old dithering man incapable of following through with his decisions, will most definitely make you laugh out loud. He’ll keep you on the edge of your seat wondering what he’ll think of next.

But…and of course there’s a but…about halfway through the movie, the story loses itself. It seems to go from one direction to the next with no clear idea of where it wants to go. There were a thousand opportunities to end the movie that would leave the audience completely satisfied but the director, Alain Resnais, though brilliant as he may be, never knows when to stop. The movie drags on until it ends in the most bizarre way…one that I can say in complete confidence, that no one saw coming!

So I’m torn. Loved the first half of the film but not so much the second half. Although the ending, as ridiculous and out there as it was, left the entire crowd, including myself, laughing uncontrollably…not so much because it was actually funny, but more so because we had no idea what the hell just happened! So see it for yourself…you’ll either love it or hate it!

As for me…I’m still trying to figure out what happened in the ending.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 17th, 2009 at 2:00 pm and is filed under Film, Review, TIFF 2009. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.