Mammuth

Gérard Depardieu, settling in as the potbellied elder statesman of French cinema, stars as Serge, a slaughterhouse butcher who takes to forced retirement like an escape artist takes to prison. It's almost a gift when his dowdy wife, Catherine (Yolande Moreau), makes him hit the road on the titular motorcycle to gather documents from all his past employers so he can collect full pension benefits. Unfortunately, filmmakers Benoît Delépine and Gustave de Kervern run out of ideas too quickly—the bureaucratic maze satire is tired and obvious—and before long the entire purpose of the trip becomes lost in a vague journey of self-discovery. Isabelle Adjani pops up as a bloody (literal) ghost from Serge's past, a long-ago former lover killed in a crash, but mostly this is a lazily meandering road comedy that stalls out before it really gets anywhere. Not a necessary purchase. S. Axmaker)