Après vous…

Stuart:

Tee hee. Mark’s a quitter!

It took him all of 20 minutes to decide he couldn’t sit through Apres vous… His almost palpable discomfort oozed from his seat as the rest of the audience laughed uproariously and he remained completely silent. He obviously doesn’t like being outside his ‘Godzilla safety zone’. Then again, Apres vous… is a comedy, and we all know how well Mark deals with this genre. (See Old School, Dodgeball, Anchorman, Team America).

Auteuil, Garcia & KiberlainTo be fair, however, I didn’t really enjoy this film much either. This is a typical French comedy of errors, in the spirit of The Closet (La Placard) and The Dinner Game (Le Dîner de cons). The comedy comes from the characters and situation, rather than any innate sense of humour. I don’t really get into films like these. I did appreciate the cleverness of Apres vous…, however I didn’t really laugh much.

Daniel Auteuil does a fantastic job here, and is the master of comedy, from subtle noncommittal ‘humphs’ to slapstick wild takes.

I should point out that I have a pathological fear of waiting. No, not for a late train; I mean I am terrified that one day I will be called upon to be a waiter in a restaurant. Seriously… it’s up there with sharks and crabs (and before you say anything else crabs=crustaceans, people!). There’s just so much that can go wrong. I know if I was put in that position I would drop the plates, knock over the glasses, get the orders wrong… And people can be so damn picky about their food! Unfortunately Apres vous… has a great deal of bad waiting going on, so whilst the rest of the audience laughed, I sank further and further into my chair, quivering with fear.

As I said, the audience loved this film, so maybe it’s for you. This is one of those annoying films where things keep going wrong again and again. For some, this is torture, for others hilarious in a head shaking, eye rolling fashion.

Waiterphobes beware.

Rating: 3 stars
Review by Stuart Wilson, 6th December 2004
Hoopla Factor: 1.5 stars


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