CHERIE 25 – FRIDAY, JUNE 17 AT 9:05 PM – FILM
Mother, friend, beautician, mythomaniac at times, Muriel (Sandrine Kiberlain) could above all be summed up entirely in this credo borrowed from an old hit that most of those who hummed it ten years ago would prefer to forget: “If I exist, my life is to be a fan” (Fanby Pascal Obispo).
But whether his idol, the successful singer Vincent Lacroix (Laurent Lafitte), is more like Pascal Obispo, Patrick Bruel or Julien Clerc, we don’t know much about it, and that doesn’t really matter. Only one trait counts: he is a man of fans.
To Muriel, who has followed him passionately for ten years and whom he knows, so to speak, for having taken the habit of finding her at the exit of her dressing room, he knows that he can ask anything. Including helping him get rid of a body…
Vincent Lacroix has in fact accidentally killed his companion, Julie Durieux (Lou Lesage), during a violent argument, after an evening of poker with friends. He asks his fan to go to Switzerland, to his sister, to have Julie’s body cremated there. Muriel accepts but, for fear of being searched, she turns around before the border to go and bury the mortal remains in the Dordogne, where her mother lives.
Pathological lies
Half-thriller, half-portrait of a woman, Jeanne Herry’s first feature film hesitates, unlike its hero, on what to ask of the cinema. Dark, very black, lighter, sparkling and difficult to swallow, it mixes all shades and all genres. Announces itself in meditation on the star-system in the manner of Super star (Xavier Giannoli, 2012), reorients himself in a game of cat and mouse, gets lost in a secondary love story between two police officers (Pascal Demolon and Olivia Côte).
All in all, it turns out to be quite frustrating, as certain scenes are good and certain ideas strong: the very elliptical construction of the first part is as clumsy as Muriel’s pathological lies can prove effective when put to the test of police questioning.
If it lacks rhythm and structure, the whole thing remains entertaining, and promising in several respects. Above all, it once again gives Sandrine Kiberlain the opportunity for one of those deceptively dull roles in which she excels.
Unlike her sidekick, Laurent Lafitte, who remains on the same register throughout the story, she skillfully manages her effects, from one scene to another, to build a singular and intriguing character that we will still hesitate , the film finished, to decide if it is that of a fake idiot or a real imbecile. Hesitation to say the least tasty, so easily can we get caught up in such a pretty game.
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