When robbers kidnap ,accidentally or not, a child, in a comedy , you can see where they are up to from a mile off...The child is unbearable, more cunning than his kidnappers,and eventually, gets them on a string....
The "villains" ask sister Rose to take the child back to town where she'll find her parents ;but when she is in the bath tub , they discover bruises on the little girl's body :this is a battered child .When a distraught daddy appears on the TV screen to urge them to release his daughter ("I won't sue you") , the girl's face tells the whole story:she's afraid of her parents and wants to stay with her kidnappers.
This situation is nothing but derivative :the villains become the good guys overnight ,and the unfortunate parents child-batterers -further investigation by the police reveals that the girlie would go through a living hell.
Guardian angels Raphael and Gabriel (the names are revealing!)set off for Spain to escape from the police ,but mainly to save their protégée ; then it becomes a road movie , with funny moments :as the police is hot on their heels and search for two men and a girl ,one of them shaves his beard ,the other puts on a wig to play the role of the "mom" ,and the girl has her hair cut short to pass off as a boy.And if it weren't enough , the girl has an imaginary friend -it's not gratuitous,a child often deprived of love affection often invents somebody who cares for his/her- ,Paco :when he goes to the toilets ,you have to wait for him!
An old lady and a muscle man named Goliath (sic) give them a shelter : Margot , a ninety-something , is for girl Paloma the great grand mother she's never had and the rapport they have is deeply moving : their conversation under the stars will drive you to tears.Monique Chaumette ,who was married to the sadly missed Philippe Noiret , finds the role of a lifetime at 90+. As for Goliath ,he represents the sturdy hero children meet in comics who always saves the damsel in distress.
The movie runs out of steam a little in its last twenty minutes ,and some sequences are filler.
But this is a good movie,with an important message to get through : there are battered children here ,there and everywhere.More than a thriller or a comedy ,this is a fable which proves that decent people are not always so and that rescuers are not always to be found in daredevil heroes, brilliant lawyers ,devoted social workers or courageous policemen.
The "villains" ask sister Rose to take the child back to town where she'll find her parents ;but when she is in the bath tub , they discover bruises on the little girl's body :this is a battered child .When a distraught daddy appears on the TV screen to urge them to release his daughter ("I won't sue you") , the girl's face tells the whole story:she's afraid of her parents and wants to stay with her kidnappers.
This situation is nothing but derivative :the villains become the good guys overnight ,and the unfortunate parents child-batterers -further investigation by the police reveals that the girlie would go through a living hell.
Guardian angels Raphael and Gabriel (the names are revealing!)set off for Spain to escape from the police ,but mainly to save their protégée ; then it becomes a road movie , with funny moments :as the police is hot on their heels and search for two men and a girl ,one of them shaves his beard ,the other puts on a wig to play the role of the "mom" ,and the girl has her hair cut short to pass off as a boy.And if it weren't enough , the girl has an imaginary friend -it's not gratuitous,a child often deprived of love affection often invents somebody who cares for his/her- ,Paco :when he goes to the toilets ,you have to wait for him!
An old lady and a muscle man named Goliath (sic) give them a shelter : Margot , a ninety-something , is for girl Paloma the great grand mother she's never had and the rapport they have is deeply moving : their conversation under the stars will drive you to tears.Monique Chaumette ,who was married to the sadly missed Philippe Noiret , finds the role of a lifetime at 90+. As for Goliath ,he represents the sturdy hero children meet in comics who always saves the damsel in distress.
The movie runs out of steam a little in its last twenty minutes ,and some sequences are filler.
But this is a good movie,with an important message to get through : there are battered children here ,there and everywhere.More than a thriller or a comedy ,this is a fable which proves that decent people are not always so and that rescuers are not always to be found in daredevil heroes, brilliant lawyers ,devoted social workers or courageous policemen.
