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7:10 p.m. - June 26, 2002 But foreign movies seem to belong in a totally different category. Today, I saw Tanguy, a French comedy and it made me happy. One is that it made me laugh so hard (or at least snicker, since I was one of two people in the theater. By the end, I was the only one). Second is that it told a simple story through character, not plot or plot mechanics. It let the characters go their own ways, grow in their own ways. Furthermore, the characters are interesting characters. They're not stereotypical characters--unique, yet plausible. Plus, it didn't feel the need to explain everything to me. Rather, it made some suggestions through dialogue, actions, and behavior. Then I made my own conclusions...That is what made me happy. I am an intelligent person and I like intelligent movies. Now, here is the rest of the movie review. Tanguy is a 28 year old man who still lives with his parents. (Perhaps this is because as a baby, Edith, Tanguy's mother, told him: "You are soooo sweet! If you want, you can stay here your entire life!") Tanguy has a comfortable lifestyle: the maid does the cleaning, his mother does the cooking, and he can sleep and work in his room in the basement. It's pretty much like an apartment there, and he doesn't have to pay. However, Tanguy is wearing down his parents' nerves--Edith is seeing a psychiatrist because of Tanguy, and through her tellings of her dreams, we learn that she fears that (1) Tanguy will never leave or (2) if Tanguy leaves, he'll boomerang right back into her arms. We also discover that Paul, Tanguy's father, was willing to let Tanguy live at home because he thought Edith wanted to have her son live at home. Now that both parents discover that their son is finally wearing their nerves thin: they formulate a plan. Now they make Tanguy feel unwelcome at home. Therefore, having his home make a sudden U-turn from a comfortable one into a hostile one should make their son ready to leave the nest. It is in this part that the broadest comedy emerges--almost slapstick, humorous comedy, and yet, we're always a little bit surprised because we are never sure how Tanguy will react. Nor do we know how he feels about all this--this movie, though titled after the son, is more about the parents' struggle in their home life. Interestingly enough, Tanguy is the mildest character, almost a catalyst. He is the one who changes the world around him; or to better clarify--he affects the lives of those who have the closest relationship to him. By the end, we understand Tanguy and his parents better. This movie serves up a nice dosage of sly humor, irony (particularly near the end), and some thoughful suggestions, and ties all the knots completely without moralizing. This is definetely a winner. Other characters have nice parallels to the familial relationship that is depicted throughout the movie. On Ebert's four star system, call this a 3.5.
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