“Oh, it’s…”

From French Exit.

The uniquely passionate socialite, Frances Price (Michelle Pfeiffer) has spent her life making a statement with her responses, actions, and money… all in a way that has been mesmerizing for her calm son, Malcolm (Lucas Hedges).  Totally caught up in the subtlety wild life that his mother has created, Malcolm is struggling to tell his Frances of his engagement to Susan (Imogen Poots), which forces her to end their relationship.  However, when Frances learns that the fortune is about to be taken from her account and returned to the estate of her late husband (Tracy Letts), she sells everything she owns and reaches out to fellow socialite friend, Joan (Susan Coyne), for help.  Joan tells Frances that she is more than welcome to stay at her long-vacant apartment in Paris, France, so Frances quietly gathers the last of her cash, Malcolm, and her cat, Small Frank, and the unique trio boards a ship to France.   Onboard, Malcolm befriends a fortune teller named Madeline (Danielle Macdonald), but he looses touch with her after they dock in Paris.  Arriving in Paris to hide her near-poverty, Frances is not interested in connecting with anyone but when their lonely neighbor, Madame Reynard (Valerie Mahaffey), a fellow ex-pat inserts herself into their lives, Frances allows it.  When Small Frank runs away, the frantic Frances hire a private investigator, Julius (Isaac de Bankolé), to find Madeline so that she can help find the cat she connected with onboard the ship.  When Joan fears that Frances plans to commit suicide when the money runs out, she flies to France to discover life at the apartment is okay, if not a bit cramped with the Price’s new acquaintances and the unexpected arrival of Susan with her new beau (Daniel Di Tomasso) to question Malcolm about his feelings for her.  While the group of people seems completely random, they show Frances and Malcolm a view of life that they could’ve never expected.

This off-brand comedy has a slightly disjointed feel at many points, but the overall story is engaging.  Even though the cast is full of legends, the dry humor is the true star of this movie.  French Exit leaves the viewer with the sense that the film had something to say, but unsure that that something was ever truly conveyed.

| Rated: R| Running Time: 113 minutes |Genre: comedy/drama |

||Family Viewing||Cursing: 5* of 10|Nudity: 1 of 10|Sexuality: 0 of 10|Gore: 0 of 10

|AVAILABLE FOR HOME VIEWING|