My Worst Nightmare

2011 [FRENCH]

Comedy / Drama / Romance

2
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Certified Fresh 67% · 12 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Spilled 28% · 500 ratings
IMDb Rating 6.0/10 10 3352 3.4K

woman director

Director

Anne Fontaine Photo
Anne Fontaine

Top cast

Virginie Efira Photo
Virginie Efira as Julie
Isabelle Huppert Photo
Isabelle Huppert as Agathe Novic
Benoît Poelvoorde Photo
Benoît Poelvoorde as Patrick Demeuleu
Éric Berger Photo
Éric Berger as Sébastien
480p.DVD
841.39 MB
704*384
French 2.0
NR
Subtitles
25 fps
1 hr 35 min
Seeds 6

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by larrys3 7 / 10

Adult French Comedy Can Be Extremely Funny But Can Also Lose Its Way

Reviewed by guy-bellinger 7 / 10

Quite watchable French comedy

The chance encounter of two different characters, from opposite social environments, having divergent interests, one sticking to the other without the latter being able to get rid of the clinger, is a narrative outline which has been used and abused over the years ("L'emmerdeur", the Pierre Richard/Gérard Depardieu comedies, many a screwball comedy of the golden age of Hollywood,...), so don't expect "Mon pire cauchemar" to surprise you in any way. As a matter of fact, Anne Fontaine's film reproduces the "odd couple" model, with its two main protagonists bickering back and forth most of the film's running time before mellowing at each other by the end of the story. Here you have Isabelle Huppert as a stiff, supercilious bourgeoise vs. Benoît Poelvoerde as a hopeless tosser who sticks like glue to her. However, although "Mon pire cauchemar" does not break any new ground in terms of narrative, it nevertheless works well, both as a pure comedy and a romcom. Two reasons can account for this apparent paradox. The first one is that Anne Fontaine is well aware that she is not innovating here. What she is after in fact is to use the stereotypes inherent in this type of comedies and to play with them in a laid-back way. We have seen Benoît Poelvoerde so often in the role of the self- satisfied pain in the neck that we can guess in advance what his character will say and do. In this case, laughter comes from these very expectations. The same applies to Isabelle Huppert who has more than once been uptight and cold on the big screen. The second reason, as far as the romantic aspect goes, is that Anne Fontaine (along with her co-writer Nicolas Mercier) manages to make us believe in the love story, highly improbable as it appears in the first half. And if she does so, it is because she has been able to give flesh to her lead couple. Even if, for a time, they seem to be nothing but puppets that wiggle their heads and flap their arms in the air, their humanity is gradually revealed when Anne Fontaine goes beyond their blatant defects (Agathe's snobbery and haughty coolness ; Patrick's terrible shamelessness) and shows either partner bringing to the other what he/she misses. Seeing Huppert letting loose and starting at last to ENJOY life and Poelvoorde declare in a moving scene: "I'm just a pathetic schmuck. I'm toxic" marks a welcome change of tone. The funny but mechanical comedy of the beginning has become more profound and we can now adhere to the two characters instead of merely laughing at them. All in all, this is surely not the best comedy ever filmed, but being a well-paced one, moreover very well interpreted by Huppert, Poelvoorde and André Dussolier (never better than when he can, as is the case here, be smart, light and weak), it is well worth seeing.
Reviewed by deloudelouvain 6 / 10

The elegance of Huppert is always worth a detour

Mon Pire Cauchemar is a watchable French drama/comedy. I wouldn't say it's the best movie with Benoit Poelvoorde but it's okay to watch once. Benoit Poelvoorde plays one of his typical characters we are used to see, a bit vulgar, obnoxious, fast speaking. I guess it's his type of character. I thought he was funnier in other movies than this one but this movie is more a drama than a comedy anyway. Isabelle Huppert on the other hand is always a delight to watch. Not only for her acting but also for her natural beauty. Time seems to have no grip on her. Her eternal elegance is her trademark. I guess some people have it and others don't, she just has is. The movie itself is like I say watchable, a little bit predictable but no necessary boring. Good enough for me to kill a couple hours.
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