It is almost a cliché to describe a film as Altmanesque. However, this does serve as a shortcut to saying that there are several strands of plot which cross at various times and interconnect.

Actress Nicole Garcia directed L’Adversaire in 2002 and is even more ambitious with this complex story of a range of characters in a French town on the Atlantic Coast. It should be said first that Charlie is a ten year old boy – and that it is not always what he actually says that is important. Rather, as the original title suggests, this is life ‘according to Charlie’, life through Charlie’s perceptions.

With so many strands at once, the film is cleverly woven – although the tennis segments, where a young champion really does not want to live the pressures of the professional circuit, are thematically tied in rather than characters encountering each other. But, the rest is quite intricate.

When a native son anthropologist visits home for a seminar, the pompous and somewhat dim mayor makes a splash. A former member of an expedition who had a breakdown is now teaching in the local high school and has Charlie in class.

The teacher’s wife is having an affair with Charlie’s father. In the meantime the local Mr Bigs have hired two amateurish crooks who have their own scam which comes undone.

The screenplay is often witty, has some good comedy with the exploits of the mayor and of the criminals, has quite some pathos with the nervous teacher and with affairs and their repercussions. And all the time, ten year old Charlie (Ferdinand Martin) observes until he quietly takes matters into his own hands.

Jean-Pierre Bacri portrayed the most obnoxious narcissistic author to great effect in Look at Me (2004). This time he is the incarnation of the sometimes shrewd, sometimes dumb, sometimes bullying local politician. Another standout is Benoit Poelvoorde as the comic thief, on parole and caring for his invalid mother. Patrick Pineau is the anthropologist and Benoit Magimel is the teacher.

An interesting and entertaining Gallic tale and tales.

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