Salomé is Golshifteh Farahani's character, who was in a relationship with César (played by Alex Lutz) over three years ago, right before he just disappeared—and nobody in his Parisian circles has seen him since. Not even his brother Pierre (played by Olivier Chantreau) or sister-in-law Camille (played by Lucie Debay), who is, as our tale begins, heavily pregnant. The two brothers are as full of insecurities as each other, it turns out, and not at all confident in anything much they do in life.
At the start of the film, César has been staying in his brother's flat while they have been away—and trashed it! When they turn up and catch him, it's obvious that Camille has little tolerance for her brother-in-law and storms off to spend a night in a hotel while the two brothers clear up the mess! When they have done so, it becomes obvious that César has nowhere to live, so he drops in on Salomé. She is fuming and hurls whatever she has to hand at him for disappearing without notice, but it's clear through it all that she harbours feelings for him.
The bombshell for César is that Salomé has a three-year-old little girl, Loulou, which she tells him is his. The age of the girl fits with when they were last together, so he is clearly delighted and the three of them start to get to know each other and, eventually, form a bond as a small family unit. He is great as a dad with Loulou and all three of them are happy. However, in order not to let Salomé think badly of him—more insecurities—he spins a pack of lies about where he is now living, what he does for a living, and how he has made money. He gets various people, including his brother, to play along and string out the lies.
Awkward family anxieties, half-truths, avoidance, and domestic pressures are the things that the film pokes fun at so well here. A comedy of mishaps and errors, bending facts to fit and worrying about what other people think of you. It's very Woody Allen in terms of set-up and script too. I can just see him doing something very similar.
Anyway, determined not to repeat past failures, César steps up! The film steers clear of standard Hollywood sweet-talk and conventional, sugar-coated romance, and instead uses its 1 hour 38 minute runtime to explore human insecurity. Farahani's grounded, emotionally intelligent performance (which rightly earned her praise and festival recognition) ensures that the film functions as a gentle, bittersweet subversion of the usual genre, vomit-fodder and all!
It's very funny in places, well-shot with nice sets, making the absolute most of Montmartre and Sacré-Cœur, the Eiffel Tower, and other Parisian landmarks. Salomé even has a job driving the famous white Montmartre train around for tourists! The acting is very convincing by all, and they've even got the late Tchéky Karyo (Baptiste himself!) to do a turn as an equally insecure, coming out of a relationship and not happy, dad of the two men at a very funny dinner party. Everyone's insecure, and that's the main feature driving the story. The more I think about it, the more Woody Allen it is—no wonder he started making his films in Europe for appreciation.
Hang about for the end credits as two of our characters are walking away from the camera, chatting, then as they get further along the road cheekily break the fourth wall, turning their conversation directly to (and about) the very cinema audience that just watched them! It's charming, winking end to a funny film that refuses to take traditional romantic tropes too seriously. Recommended.
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