[CRITICAL] BABY monitor

For his first film, BABY PHONE, Olivier, Casas offers a comedy squeaky on the consequences of little lies between friends in their thirties.

BABY PHONE gives the opportunity to think, while funny, many serious topics around the couple, the family, of parenting, of friendship, but also of her dreams of children. Olivier Casas, who had already explored these topics in a short film, turns so skillfully the test with his first feature. Young dad, he co-wrote the screenplay with Audrey Lanj, his companion to the city, and Serge Lamadie (writer of stranger than friction). At the beginning of the BABY PHONE, each character seems to be defined by its own concerns of the moment, sometimes selfish, sometimes because life requires it. But for a memorable dinner, the motivations of each other will be revealed at the great day, such tectonic plates which are inexorably in motion. These young adults will finally mature and stop behaving like the children they are no more. They will finally take their responsibilities and their place in their life.

The dinner seems to be a long time film ideal fitness troublesome question of the fundamental relationship and family friendly, where you say suddenly things without inhibition. All dinners end fortunately not like that of Festen ‘s Thomas Vinterberg! It is rather the tone gnashing of comedy which is often used, as in An air of family of Cédric Klapisch, or The first Name of Alexander The Patellière and Matthieu Delaporte. Everything can switch between them quickly, and put in danger the balance apparently solid.

Here, the trigger effect is the so-called baby monitor, which is placed in the baby’s room that come to have Ben/Medi Sadoun (Josephine rounds, The dream team) and Charlotte/Anne Marivin (Us). Their friends Simon/Pascal Demolon and Nathan/Lannick Gaudry speak without knowing that they are listened to by the couple and the mother of Ben. The baby then reveals, such a magical filter, what really think of the two friends. A bit like in the best friends in The world of Julien Rambaldi, whose basic concept was a phone badly hung up.

Lies and friendship often does not mix in BABY PHONE Click To Tweet

Presented as a nice guy without too much character, a little ben-stop, Ben is still under the influence of his parents, Hubert/Michel Jonasz (He already has your eyes) and Monique/Marie-Christine Adam. Ben would like to be able to live his passion, the musical composition, but it has not yet managed to break into this world. BABY PHONE also opens up some avenues for reflection on the difficulties of the life of the artist in our current society. But Ben fails to express or what he feels other than by the music, or what he really wants. So, he spends his time dodging the issues and responses in inventing the small lies, which multiply and become impossible to avoid. It is not the only one to do so, since his own father, his other two friends and his wife are also entered in a vicious spiral of secrecy, to varying degrees. Simon/Pascal Demolon, producer of the famous singer Juliette/Barbara Schulz, hides a sensitive behind his bad faith and his side sequin. And Juliet is not as unbearable as the character that it gives to see.

The interest funny BABY PHONE is that the scriptwriters are going up at the end of these little lies between friends, while taking the pace, worthy of a piece of theatre. They have not hesitated to push the cap far enough in the grating, keeping in mind that the bigger it is, the more it goes! The dialogues do not lack of spread and some of the scenes are extremely funny, such as the one filming the eyes of friends who understand that they have been listened to, worthy of the western the good, the bad and the ugly. About Pascal Demolon, it does a real number actor, excelling in the ability to imbue his character, his dinguerie natural and his voice was serious, as had already been able to realize in Radiostars and Five.

Thanks to the staging, mostly behind closed doors, the viewer feels close to the characters, very family or friend next door. BABY PHONE leads skillfully the viewer to some of the questions realistic on the lie, that was already raised, with a response that is more brutal, Xavier Giannoli in Margarita ! So, should we tell everything to his entourage, leaving him to make of the sentence ? Or, on the contrary, should he lie to protect him or protect yourself? What is the share of responsibility of each of the protagonists in a lie ? Until where to go and at what time judge said it is helpful to stop ? But it is also necessary to forgive? Can we rebuild a couple or a friendship in spite of the lies that have broken the trust ? And most of all, it is worth the money ?

As the film was also the question of the friendship, as had been done with The two friends of Louis Garrel : what the friendship is yet to be constituted after so many years? Is it normal that it should inflict suffering, like the romantic relationships ? Should we rejoice at the happiness of his friends, or is it normal sometimes to envy ? Finally, as to the billiards, BABY PHONE offers a reflection on the three stripes as the director insists much on the fact that music, as art, not only softens the manners, but never lies to her. Small settlements of accounts between friends pushed to the extremely funny, BABY PHONE offers, therefore, a reflection particularly jubilant about the lives of thirty-somethings!

 Sylvie-Noelle

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