MFFF MOVIE REVIEW: ALMOST FRIENDS (ON A FAILLI ETRE AMIES)



4/5

Marithe works as a career adviser where she meets Carole - a woman who is trying to reinvent herself. Carole is different from anyone Marithe had ever helped - she is running a famous restaurant, she is known in the city and has a perfect husband. Only this perfect life doesn't seem to fit her well. Marithe and Carole almost become friends but one complication arises - Marithe seems to like Carole's husband too much. As a career adviser it is now in her interest to place Carole as far away from her relationship as the next step in her career can do.

Emmanuelle Devos as Carole and Karin Viard as Marithe, as two middle aged women on the crossroads of their lives, are easily to identify with. Each and everyone of us had a thought about the future and what it's like to be truly content with one's life. There is no better way to realise what is missing than to see, that someone else has got it.

ALMOST FRIENDS is a comedy and a drama at its best. Lightly touching on topics of loneliness and a fear of independence, it tells the story at a steady pace,  not taking anyone's sides and putting things into perspective.

Director Anne Le Ny, who also played the supporting role of Marithe's ex husband's wife, knows women well and in her vision the friendship between two women is always a sort of a competition. It also has an understanding and camaraderie. However in all that there's also a place for a little betrayal. In a word - it's complicated.

It is not complicated, however, to follow the turbulent dramas of the main characters and identify with their misadventures and gains.

ALMOST FRIENDS has all the ingredients of a fun night at the movie theatre and you can even have a "happy ending" served on a silver plate. That is, if you believe in one.

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