Five
24/04/17 Filed in: Amazon Prime
The name 'Five' isn't an English translation, but the original French title, which is a bit surprising.
The plot is a bit daft, as is much of the film. But it's meant to be a comedy and is indeed amusing. The language is coarse at times, probably more so if I could understand this very informal French. Subtitles tend to anglicise this type of speech, probably cleaning things up in the process.
Basically we have five friends, Samuel, Timothée, Vadim, Julia and Nestor, who have been together since childhood and always dreamed of sharing a place together. This dream materialises when Samuel offers to pay half the rent of a desirable apartment. Samuel's father thinks his son is at medical school and supports him financially on this basis. However, Samuel has a desire to be an actor and spends his time at theatre rehearsals, where he falls for the exquisitely French Maïa. Everything comes crashing down when Samuel goes to a garden party with his father and is called upon to treat a man who has collapsed. It soon becomes clear that he has no medical training whatsoever, cue for his father to cut him off, both physically and financially.
Afraid to tell his friends of his plight Samuel gets a job as a car attendant at a plush hotel, where he develops a profitable sideline supplying drugs to the people whose cars he is parking and delivering. This little enterprise was actually inspired by Timothée's drug habit, through which Samuel was introduced to a farm where Timothée got his stuff. Things were sailing along nicely again until these suppliers were cleaned out, removing Samuel's source.
At this point Samuel had to tell the Timothée what had happened, and they embark on a trip to meet a hard-nosed drug dealer, who offers them 4kg. They only want 2kg, but anything less than 4kg requires money up front, so they reluctantly take the larger amount. They then find that their two principal intended customers are no longer buying, leaving them with the problem of selling the drugs and getting the money to the dealer by a deadline. Salvation comes when they offer to supply guests at a party being held by a somewhat unstable millionaire for his daughter Sophie. This will clear their debt, but things again fall apart when the father finds Nestor, who's the ladies' man of the five, having sex with his daughter. So they're back in the soup.
And so the plot continues, with each subsequent setback generating more humour. But, as is often the case in French comedy films, an unlikely turn of events changes everything. And it is at this point we find out why the opening sequence of the film shows Julia spear fishing off a white sand beach at some exotic location.
It's a film that should provide you with a few laughs although some of the humour is way below the belt. I found it a bit too American for my liking - think Hangover and the like.
At this point Samuel had to tell the Timothée what had happened, and they embark on a trip to meet a hard-nosed drug dealer, who offers them 4kg. They only want 2kg, but anything less than 4kg requires money up front, so they reluctantly take the larger amount. They then find that their two principal intended customers are no longer buying, leaving them with the problem of selling the drugs and getting the money to the dealer by a deadline. Salvation comes when they offer to supply guests at a party being held by a somewhat unstable millionaire for his daughter Sophie. This will clear their debt, but things again fall apart when the father finds Nestor, who's the ladies' man of the five, having sex with his daughter. So they're back in the soup.
And so the plot continues, with each subsequent setback generating more humour. But, as is often the case in French comedy films, an unlikely turn of events changes everything. And it is at this point we find out why the opening sequence of the film shows Julia spear fishing off a white sand beach at some exotic location.
It's a film that should provide you with a few laughs although some of the humour is way below the belt. I found it a bit too American for my liking - think Hangover and the like.