Let it Rain (Wednesday, June 2, 2010) (48)

My general working theory with French Cinema is that most of it, especially the most banal stuff, is about guilt over the French role in World War II and or guilt about the colonial era in North Africa and the subsequent place for Algerians in modern-day France. This film, Let it Rain, is a super typical French movie, that falls back on tired cliches and guilt over Algeria and Algerians.

In the film, Karim (played brilliantly by Jamel Debbouze) is a documentarian who is shooting a movie about Agathe (Agnes Jaoui), a local politician who is also the daughter of the family his Algerian mother has worked for as a maid for decades. Immediately this sets up an interesting relationship. The two of them were mostly raised together, but of course in totally different worlds (him the son of an immigrant and her the daughter of a wealthy white family). His co-filmmaker, Michel (Jean-Pierre Bacri), is a one-dimensional fool who seems to do and say the wrong thing at every moment.

From this set up comes a series of silly comedic scenes where the duo constantly screws up the interviews (the duo that couldn't shot straight, I guess). She deals with a boyfriend who has issues with her success, and her family deals with their decision to no longer employ Karim's mother. There are several very typical and trite family luncheon scenes, and several uses of Nina Simone songs (seriously, French people, I love Nina Simone too - but stop using her in your movies. It's getting old!). Throughout I guess there's a theme of rain - but this doesn't really seem important, not nearly enough to mention it in the title.

Agnes Jaoui, who also co-wrote the film with Bacri and directed it, clearly has talent (and almost all the vowels in her last name!) - there are some very nice moments in the film - but the problem is the sloppy script. It feels like a bunch of unconnected story threads that are randomly twisted together, rather than carefully woven or sewn (phew, that was an analogy almost gone overboard!). There is really no good plot here and the good moments are lost in the midst of a lot of other junk that doesn't work.

The best part of the film is the wonderful performance of Jamel Debbouze, who is a comic by training. He is honest, vulnerable and smart in this role - and makes the scenes he is in really come alive. I'm sure Jaoui deserves credit for getting this performance out of him. I hope to see him in more stuff in the future.

I would say this film is good, but not great. There are enough nice moments that it comes off as overall positive, however there is so much stuff holding it back that it's hard to give much higher praise than that. I generally dismiss French films about Algerian guilt as lazy - and this is very close to that designation... but is a bit better, I guess. Jaoui does use classical music very nicely for the score - and this is a nice, elegant touch. I think the big problem is the script which is rather messy and needs a re-write.

Stars: 2 of 4