THE OPINION OF THE “WORLD” – TO SEE
Because he dared to kiss a live TV presenter on the cheek, Cédric (Patrick Hivon) finds himself suspended by his employer – the video of his misdeed has gone viral. His brother Jean-Michel (Steve Laplante) inspires him with the idea of starting to write an apology book in which he would deconstruct his misogyny. Unemployed, the man goes to work while, for his part, his wife, Nadine (Monia Chokri), struggles alone with her postpartum and decides to interrupt her maternity leave. Cédric hires a babysitter, Amy (Nadia Tereszkiewicz), a blonde Lolita straight out of a man’s dream. Depending on the needs, the young woman metamorphoses into a confidante, sexy maid, life coach and lover, acting as a buffer in the couple, stuck in incommunicability.
Second feature film by actress and director Monia Chokri, after My brother’s wife (2019), Baby sitter adapts a play by Canadian playwright Catherine Léger: the film aims to be a pressure cooker of frustrations and disarray, all the more explosive as it takes place in the zombified calm of a residential suburb. In this perfectly squared universe, the characters draw aberrant movements which translate their stupefaction in an era when each sex no longer knows very well what role to play.
Preciosity
As usual, Monia Chokri polishes all her shots as if it were the last, at the risk of a preciousness that works the film on the surface, to the detriment of depth – even sluggish, the relationship between Cédric and Nadine struggles to exist .
Baby sitter draws out his visual ideas at a frantic pace reminiscent of a screwball comedy (sub-genre of comedy that is characterized by lively dialogues, played at full speed). A speed that ends up translating a fear of emptiness that haunts both the staging and the characters.
Canadian and French film by Monia Chokri. With Patrick Hivon, Monia Chokri, Nadia Tereszkiewicz, Steve Laplante (1 h 27).