Kirpianuscus an ordinary problem of XXI century as subject of a nice French comedy. good actors, seductive situations, the fight to impose to your son to start be independent, out of the comfort of his childhood home. the only problem - Tanguy is too quite to be the bad guy and, in a society of Peter Pan syndrome, the ironic portrait of a nice boy- young man does him almost a hero. Tanguy uses same clichés of French cinema who, after decades, are the key of success. Sabine Azema and Andre Dussollier are victims of the same image of angry parents looking impose to the son the need of assume of real life.Eric Berger uses same traits of charming young man who has his person, too precise vision about existence, mixture of passion for exotic domain and sentimental affairs. so, nothing surprising.

Christoph Schulze I really don't understand the bad ratings. Maybe a lot of the guys who voted like this see themselves in a similar situation? I think they just can't understand the parents. I watched the film with my parents and I am about ... well lets just say, there fits a lot. ^^ And watching this film was so intense. The characters are perfect. The successful father, who gets jealous; the mother pretending to everybody what a perfect family they are; the son - a single child - who enjoys giving away the ordinary responsibility. When the film begins they are still threatening him like there little boy. They are convincing or ignoring that he isn't any longer the little 14 year old boy. And a wonderful escalation begins.My favourite scene (doesn't spoiler): I just say one word - navy uniform.Amazing film.

Bob Taylor Etienne Chatiliez made three excellent films about families thrown into turmoil by the arrival of outsiders: Life is a Long Quiet River, Tatie Danielle and Happiness Is in the Field. In each of these, the idea was worked out beautifully until the end; the director was fully in possession of his talent. Alas, Tanguy just isn't in this class.It starts off well; we are set up with the domestic discontent of a middle-aged couple whose son can't quite get on the career track. The endless dissertation, the plan to move to Beijing that doesn't firm up: we know all these quirks. After Tanguy's first trip to the hospital (Dad smacks him with a tennis ball) Chatiliez seems to go on auto-pilot for the rest of the picture. It's as if there wasn't enough inspiration to carry him through to the end. Sabine Azema and Andre Dussolier are superb as the parents; Azema has this wonderful attack of gas whenever she's flustered by her son, and that's many times. My rating is a compromise; 9 for the first hour, 3 for the rest.

writers_reign I suspect this is more of a grey comedy masquerading as Black. Given that's it's about a relative - in this case a son - who's a pain in the ass it's tempting to see it as another angle on the same director's 'Tatie Danielle' where an aunt and not a son was the cause of friction but that would be to superficialize. Tanguy (Eric Berger) has it made; 28 years old, fluent in both Chinese and Japanese and earning good money as a teacher whilst completing his ph.D. A regular girl friend who's anxious to set up light housekeeping with him plus all the spare tail he wants. You're probably waiting for me to describe the kind of swinging bachelor pad that Sinatra used to have in movies like The Tender Trap but the twist is that Tanguy does all this from his parent's house and they've had just about enough thank you very much so they decide to 'encourage' him to leave by taking the cush out of his cushy lifestyle. But Tanguy is not just fluent in Chinese and Japanese he is also an advocate of Eastern philosophy so he turns everything around and smiles tolerantly if not quite inscrutably at all their best-laid plans. The long-suffering parents Edith and Paul (set designer and architect respectively) are played by Sabine Azema and Andre Dussollier, veterans at acting together and boy, does it show. Add a cynical aunt, Paul's mother (Helene Duc) whose constant needling finally spurs them to action and you have a cast that could make Bowling For Dollars seem like Moliere. A fine movie which addresses a subject that is now relevant in England if not other countries.