Divas in the Ring - DVD

Film: Rose (Marilou Berry) is desperate: After serving five years in prison, her relationship with her son Mickaël (Hugo Fernandes) is all but destroyed. To the boy, the woman is a stranger who occasionally visits him at his foster home. Nothing more. Rose wants to change that at any cost. Since her son is interested in nothing more than wrestling, she decides to become a wrestler herself. The ex-wrestler Richard (André Dussollier) is supposed to help her. He is impressed by the talent and the iron will of the desperate mother, but has to tell her the bad news: alone she has no chance in this business. She needs a team with which she can compete. But even this doesn't dissuade Rose from her plan. Without further ado, she convinces her bored colleagues at the supermarket to join her. And so, with Colette (Nathalie Baye), Jessica (Audrey Fleurot) and Viviane (Corinne Masiero), the divas in the ring are born. But is this really the right way for Rose to get closer to her estranged son again?

With his feature film debut Divas in the Ring, director Jean-Marc Rudnicki skillfully manages the balancing act between light entertainment, strong female comedy and social drama. He weaves the different aspects into a coherent, entertaining whole, whose gags fortunately only very rarely drift into the overly silly. Charmingly drawn characters, brought to life by great actresses, further intensify the enjoyment of this unusual story. It would have been easy for the attempt of a few frustrated supermarket employees to try their hand at wrestling to degenerate into a silly comedy. But Rudnicki takes his characters and their motivation seriously and creates a credible and for the viewer comprehensible basis for a story that can definitely be called weird.

Even at the beginning, the pace can convince. Only a few minutes pass until Rose decides to get into the ring for her son and to accept the help of Richard. But that's all the time it takes to get the most important basics across. Now there is enough room for the characters to develop, which also allows them to grow closer to the viewers' hearts. Admittedly, in the second half of the movie there are some dramaturgical lengths and the story has to accept the reproach of being quite predictable, despite its original basic idea. But all in all these negative aspects weigh only very little and therefore hardly affect the positive overall impression.

If you like French comedies like Welcome to Brittany and have a soft spot for charming chick flicks without the usual romance clichés, you should definitely not miss Divas in the Ring. Worth seeing!

Image + Sound: The DVD's image is pleasing with its warm, ingratiating colors and good overall sharpness that shows off smaller details well, especially in the brighter scenes. As is usual with comedies, surround fireworks should not be expected here in terms of sound. However, the Dolby Digital 5.1 mix certainly fulfils its purpose of transporting the dialogue and soundtrack out of the speakers in a well-matched and powerful manner. Good!

Extras: More than the trailer and other program tips from the provider, the Blu-ray unfortunately has nothing to offer.

Conclusion:Diven in the Ring, like the recent Welcome to Brittany, is a successful blend of entertaining chick flick and charming social comedy. With restrained humor that only very rarely drifts into the silly and with charming leading actresses, the film easily manages to compensate for a certain predictability of the story. The DVD presents the endearing comedy in an appealing audiovisual realization. However, one looks for bonus material in vain. Nevertheless, this is enough overall for an absolutely convinced: Recommendable!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp