Be Ready to Make a FRENCH EXIT

 

Jeri Jacquin

Coming to DVD from director Azazel Jacobs and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment comes the story of family and truth when making a FRENCH EXIT.

Frances Price (Michelle Pfeiffer) is an heiress with financial difficulties. When her husband passes, Frances lives as if the money will last forever and, well, it does not. When the bank seizes her Manhattan home, a friend offers a rarely used Paris apartment for Frances and her son Malcolm (Lucas Hedges).

Malcolm does not know how to feel about moving since he is in a relationship with girlfriend Susan (Imogen Poots) and Frances has no idea. But staying loyal to his mother, they pack up along with feline Small Frank and head to Paris.

Frances settles in quickly as a change in location does not mean you can not be impeccably dressed or make sure the accessory martini glass is always full. Malcolm is not sure what he is supposed to do with his life now, but he is kept in the loop with Joan (Susan Coyne) entering into their life along with neighbor Ms. Reynard (Valerie Mahaffey).

If having the new two women in their life, and a lot of times in the apartment, is not interesting enough, when they call Madeleine the medium (Danielle Macdonald) it becomes serious. Joined by Small Frank, the medium gives a shocking affirmation to who has been with them for years.

They might be experiencing a change of address but more importantly they are experiencing a change in life.

Pfeiffer as Frances knows that her life is slowly and irreversibly changing but yet you would never know it by her attitude or her attire. She takes the attitude of not having to explain anything because nothing can be done anyway. Her sarcasm and one-liners remind me of a younger version of the Dowager from Downton Abbey. Of course, I love characters like that, so Frances kept me totally amused and enthralled.

Hedges as Malcolm does not understand how his mother has let them get into their current predicament. Not getting any real reason other than ‘the money is gone’, he accepts that they have to move and even goes along with it because, after all, it is what needs to be done for his mother. Yet, there is almost a freedom in this new life and Malcolm starts to give me hope that he will see it (I am always the hopeful for the underdog).

Mahaffey as Ms. Reynard is the stable person although her delivery is a tad different. That difference is misunderstood when Reynard and Frances meet but they are more alike than Frances would like to admit. Mahaffey is just so lovely! Coyne as Susan is an unexpected friend to both Frances and Malcolm. Coyne gives her character a no non-sense attitude but at the same time, clearly fits into the Frances-Reynard love fest.

Shout out to Macdonald for being the one to make it clear that this group belongs together with the addition of one more to complete the circle of their life change in Paris.

Other cast include Matt Holland as Headmaster, Robert Higden as Mr, Baker, Larry Day as Ralph Rudy, Isaach De Bankole as Julius, Daniel di Tomasso as Tom, Christine Lan as Sylvia, Eddie Holland as young Malcolm and Tracy Lets as Small Frank.

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment encompasses motion picture production for television, digital content and theater releases. The studios include Columbia Pictures, Screen Gems, TriStar Pictures, Sony Pictures Animation, Stage 6 Films and Sony Picture Classics. To see what is coming to theaters and to home entertainment please visit www.sonypictures.com.

The Bluray, DVD and Digital Bonus Material include Deleted and Extended Scenes.

FRENCH EXIT is a uniquely different film that has the sense of family, loyalty, and friendship – its just that they do not know it yet. These characters are so removed from what we would know as reality, but it works for them in a hilarious way. Pfeiffer takes the lead as the person who accepts the world she has created and even when it comes crumbling around her, she raises a glass to the next life adventure or death, whichever comes first.

The cast together is sublime as they find ways to fit into each other’s lives because they do not seem to belong anywhere else. There is a connection between them that is undeniable although Frances would sarcastically say otherwise. They each have something to bring to the new posse they have created and its worth watching how it all fits.

In the end - it is about a mother, her son and a cat that start again in Paris.