It's not all sugar and candy in California

Rating: Null/10 (7 November 2006)

It sure is a comedy, and an hilarious one at that. A set of strange characters in one happy family and it all goes wrong. Willy-nilly they are all losers. One university professor is in love with a student who prefers his colleague who is also his main scholarly competitor. Hard to take so he blows his top, gets fired and commits suicide and even fails that. Another university professor who teaches positive thinking and being a winner in nine steps is unable to get a book published, in other words, is a loser himself. The grandfather of the house is on cocaine and is dreaming of a life of sex and sunshine he will never get. The son of the family has sworn never to say a word to anyone till he is accepted in the air force academy to become a pilot, and he is color-blind. No flying in these conditions. The seven year old daughter dreams of being the winner of a beauty contest in California and the whole film is about the whole family going there for the pageant. Quite an adventure and each step is a new catastrophe, a new development of losing on the greatest and biggest scale you can imagine. The car will conk out. One member of the happy family will die. A cop will stop them on the highway and they will be saved by a couple of skin magazines. They will be four minutes late to register. You name the obstacle and the handicap on the way to success, you can be sure they will have it. Up to the final finale that is the best ever and imaginable failure that is a perfect success though, but as a revenge against this paper chase and rat race society. Go enjoy the film to know the details but do not forget to take a couple of handkerchiefs to wipe your eyes regularly because you are going to laugh to the point of inundating the carpet on the floor of the cinema. It starts bizarre, it goes on strange and ends up disquietingly funny, and yet you may have a laughing heart attack before the end. Pacifying tranquilizers are necessary to live through this film.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University of Paris Dauphine & University of Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne