Written by: Patrick deWitt
Starring: Michelle Pfeiffer, Lucas Hedges, Valerie Mahaffey, Imogen Poots, Susan Coyne
Rating: [2.5/5]
When nearing the twilight of one’s life, of the many things plaguing the final years revolves around finance and not outliving what we have. In a world, where what we earn and have define us, it rightly keeps some up late at night about nightmare scenarios where they do run out of money. Or you can go about it as done in French Exit in its more luxurious approach. While having several moments worth laughing about, in the end, it culminates into something quite dull and unmemorable as a result.
Several years following the passing of her husband, Frances (Michelle Pfeiffer) has received word she has run through all of her inherited money. With nowhere to go, a friend offers to have her stay in her empty Parisian apartment causing her and her adult son to take a trip across the Atlantic to begin anew.
The situation Frances found herself in should definitely garner some sympathy as reaching the end of one’s accumulated wealth is never fun but it does deserve a bit of scrutiny. Judging by the lifestyle she lived, not having any idea of how to manage it to sustain a lifestyle that could have lasted the rest of her life does raise some questions about someone failing to acknowledge their circumstance. The fact this gets delivered to her without her having any idea signifies we have quite the character here and the rest of the film surely goes and proves that.
As we navigate this tumultuous period in Frances’s life we’ll learn if she takes this opportunity to change her attitudes around certain things especially when living off the generosity of others at this point and the results surely vary at specific points. This journey to Paris sheds light on the privilege one can have out in the world when one possesses wealth in the way one can treat others. Well, in the case of Frances, she gives off the appearance of wealth, the old money type, and we see her in full force. It almost presents the reality of watching a movie about her when she had an abundance of wealth from the start more intriguing than what we receive.
In these twilight years, she takes her son Malcolm (Lucas Hedges) over to stay with her who certainly has his own strange personality not only in the way he speaks but the way he views life. He has a fiancee who he has not told his mother about and decides to take this venture out to Paris despite these concerns about the future of their relationship. Truly an odd character but very much fits the motif of this film as a whole as these characters feel like they live in a completely different world than the rest of us. Perhaps, old money presents this opportunity to navigate in different circles outside the confines of reality.
Unfortunately, for the sake of this film, the quips laid out by Frances present the only facets of this feature worth exploring making for quite the uninteresting story as a whole. Sure, her antics accentuated by the always-great Michelle Pfeiffer will produce some laughs and some shocks from her faux-pas but when looking at the totality and soul of this feature, it truly gives us nothing to attach to. Instead, we have a host of conversations inside stuffy spaces with unremarkable individuals. As a whole, it leaves much to be desired giving off the struggle of an engaging screenplay in parts but failing to deliver on the whole, which certainly does the feature absolutely no favors.
Despite the fun performance given by Michelle Pfieffer and everything she does in this feature to elicit various emotions, the rest of French Exit ultimately results in quite the forgettable film. The finale brought nothing but a shrug and 24 hours after watching the feature I could not tell you much of anything of interest transpiring in the film. Unfortunate to say the least but I will never begrudge Michelle Pfeiffer getting more work, especially if she gets to deliver some devilish work as she does here. Unfortunately, it all came in service of something she needed to receive more support from, which never arrived in the screenplay, directing, or even her fellow actors.
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