A building manager that has been drunk again and again has to face a medical-psychological examination in “One for the Road” (2023), in the Scandinavian Oscar contribution “The Rausch” (2020) a teacher trio is faded in front of the class: Alcoholism seems to be a problem of men in recent years. This also noticed Elsa Bennett and Hyppolyte Dard. In his cinema debut, the directorate, which has so far mainly worked for French television productions, therefore addresses the dependency from a female perspective – and against the background of a culinary culture in which the drug is not only omnipresent, but also socially acceptable. In France, the two succeeded with “The good and the better days“Nevertheless, a small surprise hit – precisely because the tragicomedy does without the moral index finger and despite the topic of alcoholism, in spite of all realism, it is slightly packaged.
Suzanne (Valérie Bonneton) and the other alcohol -dependent women always have their goal in mind – but getting sober is anything but easy!
When drunk, fashion tailor Suzanne (Valérie Bonneton) forgets to put on the handbrake of her car – which rolls backwards with her three children on board. Then she loses custody and must attend a withdrawal clinic according to a judicial order. Here she gets to know other alcoholic people such as the party -loving Alice (Sabrina Ouazani) and the divine actress Diane (Michèle Laroque) who wants to make sports teachers fit for a desert rally in Morocco as part of therapy. But despite the physically demanding training program and increasing success of the therapy, setbacks do not fail …
Elsa Bennett and Hippolyte Dard clearly rely on a high level of reality. They were advised by the former alcoholic Laurence Cottet, who now gives lectures on the exit from addiction and occupied alcohol -dependent women in smaller roles alongside established actresses. One of the latter is the Valérie Bonneton (“small true lies” “), which is credibly acting with tired and sad eyes, of which, initially somewhat rugged, but unexpectedly complex identification figure between euphoric moments and the painful misses of their children increasingly reveals their tragic baking story. The same applies to Sabrina Ouazani (“Welcome to the Neighborhood”), who quickly reveals her vulnerable side behind the facade of the funky party mouse with a preference for glitter dresses, since – grew up without biological parents – she still searches for orientation in life. On the other hand, Clovis Cornillac (“What is normal?”) Appreciates as a good -natured, never -tired motivator – and one of the very few male characters – is a bit rip -hard -like and clumsy.
Painful realistic, but never difficult!
When the women's visits to the psychotherapist reflect directly into the camera about her life, depression and shame life and the anesthetic temptation of alcohol, the film achieves an authentic, almost documentary -looking intensity – and still rarely loses its dominant light -footedness. This is primarily thanks to co-author Louis-Julien Petit, who, with his participation in the script, already showed a successful balancing act between serious engagement with social problems and a quiet, winking humor with his participation in the script.
Suzanne and Diane are inevitably pushing soberly with their infusion bags or mixing alcohol-free cocktails- with orange and apple juice, basil and raw egg- to the taste of the taste. In the final, 25-minute-minute-minute and rather entertaining desert rally, however, adventurous chaos takes over, in which the women's trio can only play its peculiarities. Some twists then appear as bumpy as a crash of Suzanne, which was previously puzzled, who suddenly disappeared from the withdrawal clinic after a frustrating court decision and can be fully run at home.
Conclusion: after French productions like last “The barbarians – welcome to Brittany“The tragicomedy” The good and the better days “also proves how social problems and self -irony can be mixed into a tasty cocktail. A realistic tragicomedy on the subject of alcoholism in women that has rarely been cited in film.