Tres Bien, Merci

Smoking proves hazardous to a man’s health, but not for the customary reasons, in the rewardingly Kafkaesque Tres Bién, Merci. Compact and pleasingly perverse, this cautionary tale about stepping out of line is a slyly entertaining look at the compound indignities of modern life. Devoted husband and conscientious employee Alex (Melki) has a solid, loving relationship with his wife of 10 years, Beatrice (Sandrine Kiberlain), a Paris cab driver. On his way home at night, Alex runs into several cops doing an ID check on a young couple. Fascinated, he decides to stand and watch, even though he’s repeatedly told to move along. When Alex refuses, he’s thrown in jail for the night. Released early the next morning, he demands an explanation – and ends up in a psychiatric clinic. Matters go downhill from there, although Alex’s demeanour is consistently rational in response to authoritarian lunacy. Beatrice stands by him, but Alex’s unexplained absence from work creates problems. In its attention to pragmatic detail anchored in social realities, the picture could be read as a comic update of Hitchcock’s The Wrong Man. Sophomore co-scripter/helmer Emmanuelle Cuau (1995’s Circuit Carole) deftly conveys the stigma of being considered guilty until proven innocent. What might qualify as “proof” is always marginally out of reach. Lisa Nesselson, Variety