Easygoing tale has Hortense meet Jacques while buying a bottle at his shop, but the real star is the picturesque setting of Troyes
Chateau average? There’s not much complexity to this romantic comedy about love in middle-age, set in the medieval city of Troyes in France’s Champagne region. It’s easy-going but lacking a bit of oomph, and the comedy never properly fizzes. Isabelle Carré and Bernard Campan give warm, likable performances as a couple meeting in their 40s; he owns a wine shop, she’s a midwife. But the real star is Troyes itself, with its cobbled alleyways, surrounded by vineyards. You might find yourself planning a mini-break during the slower bits.
Carré plays midwife Hortense as an interesting and believable contradiction of eager-to-please and spiky – though there’s something a bit off in the script’s depiction of her as single woman desperately filling up her spare time: choir practice, church on Sundays, volunteering at a homeless shelter. Hortense meets grumpy Jacques when she buys a bottle of wine in his shop and invites herself along to a tasting; Jacques has had to quit drinking after a health scare. (In the most French line of the film he protests to his doctor: “But I only drink fine wines. Wine isn’t alcohol.”) There’s a spark between Hortense and Jacques but their lives are already complicated enough.
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Source link : https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/jan/29/the-tasting-review-french-midlife-romcom-wine-pairs-its-leads
Author : Cath Clarke
Publish date : 2025-01-29 07:00:40
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