Reviewed by Rama Gaind.
Writer/director: Joel Hopkins, Entertainment One.
A corrupt French businessman, a stolen diamond and a potential retirement nest egg that goes bust form the scenario of this light-hearted comic caper.
The cast – Pierce Brosnan, Emma Thompson, Celia Imrie, Timothy Spall, Louise Bourgoin – is steadily a step ahead of what the weak material merits.
Richard Jones (Brosnan, GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies, The Fourth Protocol, The World Is Not Enough, The Thomas Crown Affair, Die Another Day) and Kate (Thompson, Howards End, in The Remains of the Day, In the Name of the Father, Sense and Sensibility) play a divorced couple who reunite to repossess a $10 million diamond from the financier who deceived them.
As their assets are restricted, they come up with a plan to steal back the tangerine-sized diamond.
They had rancorously separated after Richard had left her for a younger woman. Judging by their repartee, however, the fire from their former married life is still smouldering and could easily burn brightly again.
Monetarily, life has no shortcomings, that is, until his investment firm is made insolvent by a dubious tycoon (Laurent Lafitte).
The couple’s former neighbours Jerry (Spall) and Penelope (Imrie) are lured to assist in the theft to get revenge — and they all head off to Cannes.
This wholly outlandish, merrily eccentric and affable midlife comedy has some unbelievable scenes including one in which the four are on their way to a celebration and are dressed from head-to-toe in black scuba gear!
Hopkins (Jump Tomorrow, Last Chance Harvey) ups the stakes in terms of photogenic locations to Paris and the French Riviera.
