First Hit: This film was, at times, very funny, sad, and too long.
Marguerite Dumont (Catherine Frot) has always wanted to be an opera singer. She’s very rich, married Baron Georges Dumont (Andre Marcon) because she loved him and he had a title (Baron).
The problem with Marguerite’s singing is that she sings off key. Nobody has told her this and when she sings for her music club everyone applauds because she’s got money and contributes to the club’s cause. Her husband never comes to these events at their home because he cannot stand her singing and hates to be part of the delusion everyone perpetuates to get her money, just like his own delusion.
There is a side story as well with Lucien Beaumont (Sylvain Dieuaide) and a wonderful singer named Hazel (Christa Theret). Unfortunately, this story is not well established and poorly executed.
Marguerite insists on having a public concert and hires Atos Pezzini (Michel Fau) a fading quirky opera singer who has no prospects and needs the money. The scenes of him and his team (a bearded lady and a deaf piano player) are generally funny. But watching the scenes of Marguerite singing off key were hilarious.
It requires an amazing skill to sing that badly so well. However, the film seems to drag and it could have been shorted by 15 – 30 minutes and been just as good.
Frot was strong as Marguerite the loving wife and it was amazing how she could sing off key so well. Marcon was good as the husband who never wanted to hurt his wife’s feelings and grew to really care about her. Fau was very good as the gay fading opera singer who tried to help Marguerite. Denis Mpunga was fabulous as Madelbos, Marguerite’s servant and assistant. His double edged presence was great to watch. Xavier Giannoli wrote and directed the film. Some of the dialogue was amazing, especially from Mpunga and Frot. The length of the film was bothersome as it seemed to elongate sections for no apparent reason.
Overall: Although I laughed and enjoyed the off-key singing and the story of truth and love was good, it just seemed to be overly managed/directed.