Review of Potiche

Potiche is not a charmless film in any sense - it's visually very well observed, with a sincerely analogue feel that is thoroughly convincing, and occasionally it's fairly funny. So I found why I wasn't wholly enjoying the picture at the time pretty hard to pin down, but concluded that it was some basic narrative inauthenticity. Which should be fine, right? Because it was charming, and an almost pretty persuasive meta-farce; as whimsical, distracting and colourful as the brief dictates. But for a film of this length which functions, as you'll notice, in two - if not three - pretty exhausting segments, and whose foci are family, class, female equality and ageing, Potiche needed to decide what it was, who its target was, and commit itself to it with a bit more feeling. It was thoroughly enjoyable, but when has the treatment of these subjects, even farcically, not benefited from slightly more depth than Potiche has? I doubt you'll regret seeing it, but expect to leave not wholly sure what you've seen.