La maison du bonheur

I'd better get started with my reviews of Christmas movies - the rate at which I'm watching them is far exceeding the rate at which I'm writing about them, and I'll never muster the enthusiasm if I leave it for longer.

First movie of the holiday season: La Maison du Bonheur, on TV5. I never watch TV5. But my parents do when they are here, so I saw lots of French-speaking news and features (including an interesting adaptation of a Maupassant story, about a young handsome French painter and an overly-religious British woman who find themselves in a boarding house down the country somewhere in Brittany or Normandy. It doesn't end well.)

But La Maison du Bonheur, I loved. I haven't laughed so much in years! The story is simple and very complicated - Reasonable and slightly boring man (he's a little tight with money, actually) buys a country house on impulse (to prove he can be spontaneous?) without telling his wife. He tells a colleague who bids over him, but he manages to get the house anyway, at a much inflated price. But he loses his job (as a consequence of the rivalry with his now ex-colleague). The house is in need of repairs. The estate agent "kindly" offers to put his best team on the job (who needs architects, anyway?), and things go from bad to worse. His wife is not happy, but then, love prevails. After many gas explosions, wall collapses, injured visitors, water leaks and general consternation, all ends well that ends well.

It's very slapstick, but if you're in need of a pick-me-up (and if you speak French), it's the perfect choice.