Supercondriaque (2014)

American farce made in France. A joyous journey for purists. The protagonist's acting skills are good, and his performance is in place. It's a pity that the plot and the laughter almost taste good.

Fmovies: What a lousy and infuriating comedy! Right now, I have a thought for all the struggling screenwriters who'll probably never have the chance to see their projects gracing the screen, because what they lack is not talent, but a name. It's so unfortunate that we must endure such pointless movies just because their makers asserted their bankability once. I know Cinema is a cash-grabbing industry but must that be at the expenses of good taste and fun?

Dany Boon made a name for himself, when he made the film about 'Northern People', the "Ch'tis", it ended up being the highest-grossing French film ever, but I suspect many classics from the 80's/90's would have had extra viewers if they had the chance to be released in the Internet era. Never mind, Boon succeeded and the young comedian surely earned it, he was like the Cinderella figure of comedians, a popular figure for popular movies, and I still remember the backlash over the lack of nominations for his money-making film (except for Best Screenplay) and I thought that the comedian sinned by egomania because the film was nothing revolutionary on the field of acting, directing and writing, and many comedies were nominated in the past and deservedly so, "The Visitors", "Amelie" or "Intouchables", to name them.

But in France, when you get the money, you get the power, and after the 'Ch'tis", any project led by Dany Boon was a cash-flow guarantee, he oozed success and how couldn't he, with his buffoonish face and mimics, he's a comedian who finds the perfect note to appeal to both children and grown-ups, and by playing the straight guy, Kad Merad efficiently completes him. So there was no reason for a story of a hypochondriac guy and his friend, a doctor, wouldn't be a source of hilarious gags. And it starts very well, until it finally sinks in the ridiculous addition of a love story and some mistaken identities' subplots involving immigrants from Eastern Europe, it goes everywhere but ultimately nowhere.

The film is cruelly misleading because it features some of the best visual gags in the beginning, a man who's so scared of germs he avoids the New Year's countdown because he can't kiss all the guests and ruin the parties in the worst possible way, his ballet in the Parisian subway in order to avoid the poles is a magnificent example of slapstick and silent comedy that even afforded a funny punch line. And Boon enriches his characters with delightful verbal bits, he's a photograph for a medical book, which explains his phobia and in a waiting room, he tells the patients that the room is just a scheme in order to provoke a general contamination, and keep people sick. At this moment, I knew I was watching a monument of comedy and that the film made 5 millions viewers was even more encouraging.

The character was funny, touching and worked as a perfect foil for an original plot, but slowly, the whole fun disintegrates and the comedy derails toward "the man must find a woman in his life": that becomes his priority, but wouldn't we care more for his hypochondria? Anyway, the romantic stuff starts well with a few failing dates that overly exaggerated his mania, and then the film gets mixed in the political subplot, where Boon pretends to be a refugee and must pull an accent to fool his friend's sister, well, at that point, I didn't think the film was going to improve, the best gags were far behind. The film had a great concept and I

First things first : this is not the movie that will save 21st Century French comedies. It's pretty bad.

The plot makes no sense whatsoever: you would believe there are ghosts in the subways of Paris or an alien invasion in London before believing anyone would be dumb enough to confuse our super french weak main character with an east European revolutionary leader fighter type.

Dany Boon also just overplays it. In this movie he embraces being a new Louis de Funes... but does it quite pull it off. Even if he did, don't do this kind of stuff in 2014 no?

What does work sometimes is the premise of the main character : this germ and virus phobia did get a few chuckles here and there throughout the movie. Enough and often enough for me to plow through the whole thing.

Voila, you can probably pass though.

Supercondriaque fmovies. Supercondriaque is, somehow, two movies thrown together - the titular hypochondriac comedy, and a mix-up immigration comedy - each of them might work perfectly on its own but the mix has a somewhat hollow taste, it's switching from silly comedy to social commentary to action to intelligent comedy to slapstick and back. None of the characters gets any depth since everyone of them has to act completely silly (= so silly it would feel displaced even in "Hangover") every few scenes to keep the convoluted comedy going, and as a result nothing and no-one gets taken seriously.

There are some really funny scenes in there and one or two good running gags, and there would even be something like a message if we cared about the characters, but as a whole this movie is like some soufflé without salt ... quickly forgotten, nothing of consequence.

It may seem to be a rather ordinary work from a nation that did quite well in production of excellent comedies. It helped to renew my blurred memories of my French vocabulary though. And I had some good laughs with my friends while watching it. I would say it is a film worth watching, especially when you are seeking to relax your tense nerves and do not care to follow a complicated plot.

I watched this on cable and dear I didn't laugh so much for long time ago. Dany Boon wrote and directed this very amusing film. The story is invented in a very fantastic way that only Dany Boon succeeds to. His partner Kad Merad played with a high chemistry this doctor role. They are really a great team and it is always fun to see them together also in other comedies. The movie was never boring and as I have already mentioned very funny. Just see it. If you are looking for a great entertaining moment you should check it out. I am sure you won't regret. Even my family had lot of fun. 7/10

I highly recommend the other Bienvenue chez les Chti's or Rien à declarer.