Direction: Albert Dupontel
Country: France
The seventh feature from French writer-director Albert Dupontel (9-Month Stretch, 2013; See You Up There, 2017), who also stars alongside Virginie Efira and Nicolas Marié, is a goofy existentialist satire in desperate need of maturity. Although vivid in the dynamics and maintaining some interest in its inaugural part, the dramedy adheres to a screenplay with elements that have no real payoff, relying too much on the presumed comic chemistry between its co-stars.
It all begins when Suze Trappet (Efira), a terminally ill 43-year-old hairdresser, decides to go after the son she was forced to give to adoption at the age 15. Coincidentally, Mr. Cuchas (Dupontel), a savvy but overemotional security expert seems to have his days counted in the company he works for. Frantic, he decides to buy a gun but fails to take his own life. These embittered characters will bump into each other with some phenomenon. Yet, the story begins to descend into a vacuous state when they meet a blind archivist (Marié) who panics whenever the police is around.
It seems to me that the able cast certainly had more fun performing the scenes than the people watching them in the theater. Lacking ambition, Bye Bye Morons may be digestible if you just want to rest your brain with a sloppy melodrama, but it will be a disaster if you expect a clever plot with excitement and twists.
