'French Exit' film review: Eccentric, absurd misfire wastes Pfeiffer's stellar turn
Michelle Pfeiffer's sharp-tongued, low-key great performance is literally the only reason not to make a French exit from the theater while watching the bungled drama 'French Exit' (opening in additional cities nationwide April 2).
In short: Aging Manhattan socialite Frances (Pfeiffer) is forced to move into a small apartment in Paris with her son Malcom (Lucas Hedges) and cat - who is her reincarnated husband - with the little money they have left. Imogen Poots and Valerie Mahaffey also star.
The best films drop compelling characters into engrossing stories. 'French Exit' awkwardly just assumes quirk and a wry wit is enough to maintain a nearly two-hour meandering drama buoyed by the occasional bit of bone dry humor. Every scene leaves the bitter aftertaste of 'so now what?' -- and this is a direct result of the film annoyingly stringing the audience along for way too long. Frances has a clear plan, but it's almost entirely in her own head until almost half way into the film. So without hints or indications where the story is going, the audience is expected to just go along the increasingly bleak downward spiral of a once rich person ... before forced to live in a lavish Paris apartment. It's difficult to establish empathy for a character whose defining trait is a sharp bitterness in her fall from grace - while she still travels and lives in comfort more plush than most non-wealthy elites. The end result is a film with a less-than empathetic character in a meandering plot only punctuated by a scant few attempts at cutting humor.
'French Exit' is a tryhard of forced, flaccid off-kilter humor - a tone that is bungled and barely manages to distract from a lethargic plot. When the film knows its meandering plot is yet again bogged down, the script just throws in some random non sequitur beat. It's not enough that 'Small Frank' the cat is the reincarnation of Frances' dead husband - but the small apartment inexplicably becomes a flophouse for a crew of strangers and one character just randomly bonks her head on a lamp when she gets a bright idea. Quirk is fine. Forced quirk is painful. And all of this is layered atop a story fundamentally defined by suicidal ideation. 'French Exit' utterly mismanages the tonal shifts.
The tragedy of 'French Exit' is the script briefly and occasionally touches upon truly affecting truths and sentiments. There are kernels of notions, almost spoken by character in passing, that are heartbreaking in the utmost. It's transparently obvious the script was adapted by a novel, teasing the audience with tantalizing thoughts. Sidenote: it's rarely a positive sign when it's clear the film is based on a book - because the audience is aware the film is only barely scratching the surface of a richer source material that the adaptation simply cannot or does not access.
Michelle Pfeiffer is the absolute, undeniable strength of 'French Exit.' Frances is self-obsessed, bitter and dysfunctional - yet its her tragic awareness of her downward spiral that Pfeiffer taps into, humanizing an otherwise inaccessible character. Pfeiffer beautifully pulls off cutting disdain delivered effortlessly. Her performance alone honestly almost makes enduring the entire botched dramedy worth enduring. Almost. 'French Exit' will absolute make the list of great film performances of 2021, even if the film itself is tedious and annoying.
Final verdict: Pfeiffer's sardonic performance is the highlight of what is otherwise a misfire of flat humor and inert drama.
Score: 2/5
'French Exit' opens in additional cities nationwide April 2. This drama is rated R for language and sexual references and has a running time of 113 minutes.
