NYFF. Let It Rain.

"The insidious nature of racism and marginalization that underpins the discourse in It's Hard Being Loved by Jerks also surfaces in Let It Rain [site], Agnès Jaoui's third (and lightest) ensemble collaboration with screenwriter and actor, Jean-Pierre Bacri," writes Acquarello.

Akiva Gottlieb in Slant: "Let It Rain is certainly no departure for Jaoui and company; it's another less-than-caustic battle of the sexes set among the comfortable and brilliant, with plenty of verbal jousting but little political frisson. Even when Jaoui and co-star Jean-Pierre Bacri's script hits upon the evergreen conversational lightning rods of gender and class inequality, its characters end up sounding frivolous."

Updated through 10/22.

Writing for Stop Smiling, Michael Joshua Rowin finds that Let It Rain "is the platonic ideal of a mediocre 'French film': light drama, light jokes, light light, all in the service of thinly sketched portraits of dull bourgeois dealing with love and loss and blah blah blah."

Online listening tip. Film Comment's Paul Brunick talks with Jaoui.

Online viewing tip. FilmCatcher interviews Jaoui.

Update: "Navigating the rocky straits of the serious-minded comedy, Let It Rain maintains a breezy tone while hinting at deeper concerns," writes Eric Hynes at Reverse Shot. "Such comedies are always tricky endeavors, as too much levity squanders efforts at gravitas, and self-importance stifles laughs. For every film that succeeds in mining comedy for serious Chekhovian pathos (Rules of the Game, Crimes and Misdemeanors), there are films like the contrived, schmaltzy Life is Beautiful, or the justly forgotten Mel Brooks goes homeless knee-slapper Life Stinks. On the whole Let It Rain manages just fine. If its balanced approach occasionally has the feel of compromise, of a middle course overly plotted to avert danger, the film nevertheless exudes a warm, world-weathered integrity."

Update, 10/22: "Why does it feel so complacent?" asks Vadim Rizov at the House Next Door. "I mean sure, I'm not immune to the charms of this genre - Olivier Assayas's Late August, Early September is about as fine and moving an example as there is - but between the predictability and the lack of pizazz, I'm just not sold."

Posted by dwhudson at October 20, 2008 2:27 AM