"World-wide (English title): Big Sentiments Make for Good Sports" (IMDB.com)
(spoilers!) A few days in the life of two middle-class families who live next door to each other in an apartment building. Irascible curmudgeon Georges' mother has died in a car crash. Authoritarian music-lover Claude's daughter is getting married. Funeral and wedding will happen on the same day. Other characters include Georges' brother Stéphane, who develops a crush on the marrying neighbor, and Claude's cousin Alphonse, a prankster. Claude doesn't own a telephone, so he borrows Georges' whenever he needs to use one, and also for his daughter's incoming calls. Georges likes to lie about his social status (e.g. while both are at the barbershop he tells Claude he has bought a boat). Claude listens to classical music in his cellar. Both families' boys disappear one afternoon and are found (by Claude) leaving a vacant lot in a state of intoxication from smoke and alcohol. On the way to the funeral, Stéphane gets lost in the Paris traffic for a while. One of Claude's wedding guest families arrives after it is over. The master of ceremonies at the wedding dinner is a weird type who goes into a tantrum with his clients for "not letting him do his job"; he imposes some infantile games on them. The deceased woman's sister is an extremely obnoxious woman who drives Georges into a fit of fury at the table and is thrown out of the house with her son and daughter. On her way out she demands a ring which she says she had lent her sister; Georges ignores her (he had already removed it from her sister's finger). There is also a busybody female who lives on the same floor as them and likes to stand in the hallway and berate them. And a wheelchair-bound man who is always trying to use the elevator, and irritates everyone.
Entertaining comedy which mines everyday disasters and people's pettinessess and quirks for comicity. It's very well made, and the cast -- especially the two leads -- is in great form. A film like this, which looks for a new gag at every scene, is bound to misfire occasionally, but overall it works well and is certainly an interesting watch.
Rating: 56
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