And if we all move in together?

For years they have been good friends. But age is starting to make itself uncomfortably felt. But Annie (Geraldine Chaplin) and Jean (Guy Bedos), Jeanne (Jane Fonda) and Albert (Pierre Richard), and love-struck bachelor Claude (Claude Rich) are not about to be sidelined that easily. After Claude is scheduled to be shipped off to a nursing home following a breakdown, the friends decide to simply all move in together at Annie and Jean's house. Since this unusual shared apartment is no easy feat, Jeanne hires college student Dirk (Daniel Brühl) to give them a little help with the day-to-day chores. But it soon turns out that living together is more difficult than they first thought. And Albert's increasing dementia and a secret from the past, which connects Claude in a very special way with the two women, are not even the worst problems.

And if we all move in together? is a nice tragicomedy, which of course lives primarily from its great cast. Whether it's the wonderful Pierre Richard, who even in his old age hasn't lost the mischievous gleam in his eye, or the pleasantly understated Jane Fonda, watching this ensemble play is just plain fun. Director Stéphane Robelin guides the seasoned actors with a sure hand through his second feature film. He treats various topics such as illness, love, death, friendship or sex with a lightness that never drifts into the shallow and thus does justice to its actual seriousness.

What is particularly positive is that Robelin denounces some conditions, such as the way old people are treated in many nursing homes, but he refrains from the kind of consternation that would have easily made the film a hard-to-digest social drama. By putting the entertainment value in the foreground and telling the story in a humorous and emotional way as it were, he draws attention to important issues without smothering the viewer with an unnecessarily heavy production.

As wonderful as the actors are and as beautiful as the story in which they are allowed to act, there is still the feeling after the very moving finale that in the end not all the potential that the director had at his disposal has been used. The movie is nice, manages to put a smile on the viewer's face again and again. And yet, it lacks that certain something that would have given this nice, humorous drama a lasting impact. But even though And if we all move in together? lacks just that, it's still worth watching this movie. Because alone the quite unusually assembled cast, some very funny ideas and really touching moments, which are primarily delivered by Pierre Richard, make the film absolutely worth watching, especially for more mature lovers of French arthouse comedies!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp