It’s often not until you are placed in a situation way outside your norm that you discover that your satisfaction with the way your life may not as substantial as you think it is, and that what looked like rock-solid and certain is far more fragile than you could ever have guessed.
That makes sense; who among us wants to admit that the very core of our life, what makes us tick and happy and get up in the morning is far more prone to existential subsidence than we thought.
At the start of Éric Besnard’s latest film, A Great Friend (Les choses simples), pedal-wholly-to-the-metal superstar businessman, Vincent Delcour (Lambert Wilson), is racing ahead at is usual breakneck speed.
Well, figuratively, anyway.
In actuality, his car is broken down by the side of an isolated road in the mountains outside of a major city (assuming Paris?), his mobile unable to pick up a signal and his only source of help a passing motorcyclist named Pierre (Grégory Gadebois) who is as different from the man he assists as possible.
Where Vincent is all boundless, avuncular confidence, slick deals and high fashion stylings, Pierre is gruff and withdrawn, a man who has chosen for reasons that soon become apparent to live far out in the woods, cut off from the modern world and concerned only with woodworking, creating what appear to be perfumes and fishing with a neighbourhood girl named Zoé (Betty Pierucci Berthoud).
The lives he and Vincent live are as different as night and day but over the course of the day the latter spends at the former’s mountain cabin, it becomes clear that neither man is being completely truthful with themselves or each other and that maybe the things underpinning their lives aren’t as well understood or certain as they might think.
On one unexpectedly quiet afternoon, Vincent begins to appreciate that maybe falling asleep in a hammock under a clear blue sky may not be the worst way to spend your time and that eating a rustically-prepared omelette might be the best meal he’s had in ages.
And when, his car repaired by a reluctant Pierre, he returns to civilisation and an errant question in a high-powered media interview triggers a panic attack – this is something that floors a man who has never known a self-admitted moment of indecision or lack of confidence in his hyper-successful life – he flees back to the quiet sanctuary of Pierre’s rural idyll, which is offers him everything he needs to sort through this fracture in a hitherto seamlessly achievement-rich life.
Everything, of course, but a warm welcome from Pierre who is harbouring some secrets of his own, including the nature of his relationship with Zoé’s mum, Camille (Marie Gillain) with whom he has dinner, which he cooks, several times a week.
Pierre wants Vincent gone but the unwanted guest wants to stay put and much of the humour and charm of A Great Friend (Les choses simples) is watching this undeniable odd couple work out if there’s any chance of a rapprochement between them and maybe even, to Pierre’s undoubted horror, a friendship.
To give away what transpires in the final two thirds of the film would be grant spoilers by the truckload to potential audiences but suffice to say that when all the secrets emerge and prevailing agendas come to light, that there’s a great deal of quite moving fun to be had in A Great Friend (Les choses simples).
In fact, it’s one of those films that quite gloriously subverts any and all expectations you might have of where it will go and what will happen to its two ultimately quite likeable central characters.
And in an age where narratives seem fully and definitively flagged before you even walk into the cinema or fire up the streaming platform of your choice, that is true and unfettered delight.
Ripe with sparkling dialogue, serious issues handled with a light but illuminating touch, and stellar performances from the two leads, A Great Friend (Les choses simples) manages to inhabit a number of different genres at once and pay due respect to all of them.
That, as you might imagine, is no easy task and you keep waiting for Besnard, who also wrote the perfectly-paced screenplay, to stumble a little here or there, or let one genre fall into neglect while the other has more than its fair moment in the storyline sun, but that never happens.
A Great Friend (Les choses simples) is flawlessly, enjoyably sure of what it is and what it wants to say, and set against some inspiring backdrops, it also has the cinematography to hold your attention all the way through.
This is genuinely a movie that will leave you feeling better at the end than you were at the start, and it accomplishes this miraculous without resorting once to emotional manipulation, melodramatic narrative hyping or over-egging any individual element of the film.
It all just flows cleanly and beautifully, and as Vincent and Pierre fight their respective demons and lay bare what’s going on beneath surface – the thing is that both knows precisely what the other is up to but that’s not clear to the audience until some rather wonderfully well-judged reveals – you find yourself not only likely them both more and more, but also buoyed by the fact that each is finding the healing they need to get on with the rest of their lives in a way that feels believable and grounded.
A Great Friend (Les choses simples) is an unalloyed gem, a film that initially presents as one thing, becomes quite another, and excels at every iteration, becoming by the end the sort of story you will want to return to again and again, if only to be reminded that some self examination from time to time may not be a bad thing if it means you end up living a richer and more authentic life and find the exact right place you need to be in the precisely satisfying way you need to be there.