Review: Happy 50 a bittersweet French comedy that brings something to the party

Four stars

The original French title of this comedy, seen onscreen, is Plancha. Presumably the English-language subtitlers assumed Anglophone audiences wouldn't have heard of this griddle used in Spanish cooking (I certainly hadn't). But Happy 50 (grrr) sounds like a bad piece of translation - Happy 50^th would be more apt.

This film is a follow-up to co-writer and director Eric Lavaine's Barbecue (2014) - I haven't seen that film but Happy 50 (how I hate that title) works well on its own. It's a bittersweet character comedy with a good cast and some poignant moments.

The birthday boy here, Yves (Guillaume de Tonquédec), has indeed reached half a century. To celebrate, his friends have planned to take him from Lyons to sunny Paros in Greece. But their flight is cancelled and another isn't available for a couple of weeks, which was the period for which they'd booked accommodation.

To salvage things, Yves suggests they go to his family home in Brittany. Some of the party are reluctant, thinking it will be cold and wet, but with no better alternatives, off they head.

The place is quite beautiful even if Yves can't stop talking about its history and that of his family - telling one couple they are sleeping in the bed where his grandmother died is definitely more than they needed to know.

After one sunny day, the rains come and everyone is forced to spend most of the time indoors together. While there's food and wine aplenty and board games and a jigsaw puzzle for amusement, being cooped up will test everyone.

The fact that a film takes place wholly or mostly in a limited location doesn't mean it will necessarily be dull or like a filmed play - movies as diverse as 12 Angry Men, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf and Misery show that.

It does mean that the dialogue and acting are more heavily foregrounded, and the scene is set for a bittersweet character comedy. There's a child here but he gets little attention - it's all about the adults, especially the men. The women are mostly seen in relation to their husbands, though whether that's the characters' sexism or that of the filmmakers is debatable. It must be said, however, that the women are far more sensible and less neurotic than their men.

Baptiste (Franck Dubosc) is worried about his job security and rattled by talk of the superstitions of the Kerzellacs (the Bretons who come that part of the region). His male ego is also hurt by the fact his wife Ana (Caroline Anglade) makes more money than he does.

Laurent (Lionel Abelanski) also suffers from wounded pride. He feels like he's on the bottom of the group's status ladder now that Jean-Mich' (Jérme Commandeur) has returned from a period overseas thinner, wealthier and with a wife, Valentina (Alice Llenas), and a child.

Nathalie (Valérie Crouzet), Laurent's wife, is a sculptor and the men keep making patronising comments about her, while Yves' wife Laure (Lysiane Meis) does most of the mundane hosting work. She seems to be OK with that, but it feels like her husband takes her for granted.

The other couple, Antoine (Lambert Wilson) and Véronique (Sophie Duez) have their own issues: he's been depressed and difficult since the death of his father, with whom he had a difficult relationship, but won't seek professional help, and the strain is showing.

Everyone is forced to spend time together without much respite (you'd think they'd go off to the bedrooms for some breathing room), so it's inevitable that conflicts will arise. Insecurities and resentments come out, people bicker and quarrel, some secrets are spilled, and Antoine's jokey birthday gift for Yves - a DNA test tracing his ancestry - has unexpected results.

Happy 50 (wince) is funny, mostly in a low-key way, but the humour is often tinged with melancholy, giving it more substance than if a broader approach had been taken. The characters are understandable and human - we've all been in situations where we would have liked to escape, even if we like the people we're with - and the settings, even in the rain, are lovely.