Good comedies can be built on very slender premises, which is certainly the case with this Gallic farce written and directed by the team of Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de la Patellière. What's In a Name? centers on a dinner party hosted by married teachers: Vincent (Patrick Bruel), a famous, much-published fortysomething professor, and his younger spouse, Anna (Judith El Zein), who soldiers on in obscurity at a grim high school. The guests are Anna's wealthy brother, his pregnant spouse, and a close friend—an apparently unattached trombonist. A nasty argument erupts when the brother announces the name that he and his wife have chosen for the child they're expecting, and things go downhill from there as long-hidden secrets are revealed and simmering animosities burst into the open. Originally titled Le Prénom, the piece began as a play, and even though the filmmakers have opened it up slightly—with some external shots of the five major characters, brief appearances by a few others (a deliveryman, the siblings' mother, the children of the hosts), and some flashbacks—this basically remains a talky, stage-bound work. But the cast energetically delivers the dialogue (which includes a good many zingers), and the fluid camerawork minimizes the essentially static quality of the setting. Imagine a comic version of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and you'll have some idea of what this fizzy French film is like. Recommended. (F. Swietek)
What's In a Name?
First Run, 109 min., in French w/English subtitles, not rated, DVD: $24.95, June 3 Volume 29, Issue 4
What's In a Name?
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