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In Les Comperes, filmmaker Francis Veber (writer of La Cage aux Folles) ingeniously blends elements of buddy movies, thrillers and teen comedy into an endearing French screwball classic. The comic chemistry of Pierre Richard (The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe) and Gerard Depardieu (Camille Claudel, Green Card), introduced in Veber's La Chevre, here energizes this antic adventure with infectious charisma and sincerity. When her 16-year-old son runs away from their Paris home, Christine (Anna Duperey, You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet) sidesteps her stubborn husband and separately convinces two former lovers that they are each the boy's father. Duped into a sense of responsibility for a son they never knew, brawling newspaperman Lucas (Depardieu) and fragile neurotic Pignon (Richard) follow the boy's trail to Nice and proceed to pack decades' worth of dubious parenting into a few manic days battling Riviera bikers, casino racketeers and most often each other. Depardieu and Richard's expert timing and interplay allows this tender farce to unfold with a breakneck pace that belies the honest sentiment at it's heart. Les Comperes was remade in Hollywood as Fathers' Day, starring Robin Williams and Billy Crystal.
Anny Duperey