marzioing
Not so good. I don't put the blame on the actors, they're not bad (anyway, Laurent is probably the worst in the cast) but when you have a poor screenplay, that's the result. The characters are really stereotyped, no room for nuances; there's the nice guy, the good friend, the ignorant and racist shop owner, the psychologically fragile mother... Mind, this is nothing unbearable, but you would expect something more from a screenplay adapted from a book. The same is true for the main idea which is at the base of the story, I think it's simply not realistic. So, basically, you wait for something unexpected to happen but you're disappointed because everything is very predictable (and dull); this until the very end, when there's the big revelation with the unexpected twist, but frankly it's not realistic and unbelievable, so it's obvious you couldn't have predicted it. And don't forget Melanie Laurent: she plays the main character and she's always there, always with the same dull face. Thumbs down.
dbdumonteil
Fans of Eric Rohmer,you have got to move on:this world of youth is not a rosy one ,not a world where all that a girl has to do is choose between an apartment in Paris or a small house in the suburb.Philippe Lioret does not show young people going to the beach,or contemplating their navel or waiting for the green ray.Melanie Laurent shines in her part of a desperate girl whose twin brother has disappeared.She puts the blame on her father (Kad Merad) but this man,as the movie progresses ,becomes more and more pitiful ,and more and more endearing.He's got a strong guilt feeling and the only time he rebels against a -perhaps unfair- accusation comes relatively late in the movie when he says he gave him all that money could buy.Isabelle Renauld is equally efficient as the mother and good support is provided by Aïssa Maiga and Julien Boisselier.In Lioret's excellent work,the character who moves me deeply is the father ;the conclusion of the movie leaves us with a man who finally gave all,who wrote his self-criticism,a good father who tried his best and who deserves all our sympathy.Like this?Try these......"La Stanza Del Figlio" Nanni Moretti "Ordinary people" Robert Redford
steph638
I was expecting a real mystery, complex (or at least well balanced and realistic) characters, real family relationships study. The plot line seemed intriguing and I like independent witty movies.From the beginning, it feels shallow, full of clichés, and like a first attempt to paint places, people, life.I started to watch it at 2x with subtitles when it becomes too silly and unrealistic, when she stopped eating and was kept in the hospital like a prisoner.Even at 2x it was boring and depressing. So I jumped at the end of the movie in order to know the truth about Loïc.The truth is, you won't miss anything by avoiding this dull movie.
richard_sleboe
"Je vais bien" is built on a shaky premise. A big thing happens to a small family, and the script assumes that loving parents could choose to hide it from their grown-up kid. Not once, not twice, but for good. Paul (Kad Merad, excellent) and Isabelle go to no small pains to conceal the truth. The uncertainty sends their 19-year old daughter Lili (Mélanie Laurent, not too hard to look at) down a one-way spiral of self-destruction. The good news is, most of the story works even if we don't buy into the initial premise. Lili's troubles run way deeper than is apparent at first, so the parental scheme acts only as the trigger of her depression. In a self-prescribed regimen of denial, all she ever really does is smoke. We see Lili not eating, Lili not talking, and nobody wants ice-cream.
AD
