Con’s Score: 3.5 Hot Flushes
Aurora is a single woman who’s just hit fifty, menopause, her new boss is a tosser who wants to call her Samantha (because it’s sexier), one daughter is pregnant and the other is shagging her boyfriend in her house. It’s all a bit much.
She does have a crazy friend, Marina (Sarah Suco), a real estate agent who uses Aurora as a dummy buyer. Through her, she bumps into Totoche (Thibault de Montalembert) a flame from her teenage years, and old memories and regrets are stirred.
This is very much a film about a woman dealing with growing old and being marginalised. (I wondered, how many English films have covered this topic? You can probably count them on one finger.) It explores the challenges of juggling family duties and looking after oneself in a selfish world, while suffering with menopausal flushes. And through the attraction with an old flame, how much of life is subtly burdened by regret.
It’s handled nicely, combining comedy and drama in a realistic way. “It could be worse,” one coworker says to Aurora. “You could be black, disabled, lesbian and Muslim!”
Every person is a character and no small role or opportunity is unexplored. Her two employment agents are hilarious in their own right and the automatic doors never work for her.
Blandine Lenoire’s direction is sharp and she keeps the balance between realism and comedy nicely. She splices in experts opinions on women and their health issues to keep this movie focussed. Her cast is very good. Agnès Jaoui is excellent as Aurora. She’s very likeable from the beginning and has a wide range to cover. She knows how to show exasperation without exaggeration, and is the epicentre of this film.
This is deceptively good. While it uses great comedy to entertain us it also carries some weighty messages with its warm realism and well realised characters.
Con Nats – On The Town & Theatre Now
