Review of Just to Be Sure

"Ôtez-moi d'un doute" or "Just to Be Sure" is a French/Belgian co-production that resulted in this new 2017 French-language film. It runs for 100 minutes and was directed by Carine Tardieu, who is also one of the actually pretty many writers working on this project. I must say that I am not familiar with lead actor François Damiens, but he did a good job, and Cécile De France is of course pretty well-known, also outside France. This is basically the story of three generations: the old, the middle (including the protagonist) and the young. Actually you could add the very young too with the baby at the end. And fatherhood is what it is all about, about potential fathers, actual fathers, fathers who thought they were fathers but aren't etc. So maybe it is a good watch for you and your daddy on Father's day. I think the actors here all did a fine job. Some pretty charming portrayals and all the performances felt authentic. From start to finish I felt like I was watching real people indeed and not just actors, which is always a good thing. I also thought the film did a really good job with the tiny comedic parts that weren't too frequent so that they could have hurt the core stories, but frequent enough to provide comic relief in the face of the more dramatic plot points. And they were really witty and profited from the good execution of the material by the actors too. And it takes a bit attention away from the drama, which sadly does not always feel 100% realistic. The twist at the end is just one example. So now he isn't the son of the other old man all of a sudden? Did the private eye mess up? I guess they needed that for the romantically happy ending. Or that the other dad seemingly knew about it all along. Or the other guy suddenly leaving to get cigarettes. And there's more examples. They maybe went a bit over the top from time to time there. However, the characters and performances are just likable enough (really each and every single one of them) make it easy enough to look past some of the flaws in story-telling and enjoy the film for what it is: a little fun family drama with some really nice attention to detail. Another quality movie from France and there are so so many these days. I wish Germany came anywhere near that level in quantity, especially talking about comedies. Overall no hesitation for me to give it a thumbs-up. It's most likely closer to 4 stars than to 2 (out of 5) and I definitely recommend checking it out. It also never gets too serious really, which is good and fits the tone better than if they had included concrete references on death. The ending is rewarding too. He may not have found his father, but he found love and he found friendship. Finally, another scene I quite liked was the initial reaction by the new (old) dad who just felt it was all too much for him before he contacted his son again hoping to have won a new family member. Overall, this one certainly deserves to be seen, not necessarily in a theater, but maybe at home from a DVD. Watch it. And also check out another new French film "Le fils de Jean", which is about a very similar subject.