Nothing to Give Away

At first glance, talented violinist François Gautier (Dany Boon) seems like an ordinary man. But it takes the loner considerable effort not to let those around him notice that, since early childhood, he's arguably the biggest tightwad the world has ever seen. He saves every penny, would never think of throwing away food just because it's expired, and never leaves the lights on for a second longer than necessary. Whenever he has to part with his money, he has panic attacks, while saving gives him great joy. But then the tightwad's life gets shaken up: first 16-year-old Laura (Noémie Schmidt) shows up, revealing to him that she's his daughter - the result of using a long-expired condom. And then his new colleague Valérie (Laurence Arné) makes advances on him, and also comes up with such crazy ideas as that he could take her out to dinner. Before he can even say piggy bank, his emotional world and meticulous savings plan is completely turned upside down. How is he going to fix it?

Stingy people can be very, very funny in cinema. You get an inkling of that in the comedy Nothing to Give Away. Because at the beginning, it really is extremely funny to watch François pedantically saving every penny, whether it's on dinner, sharing gifts for colleagues or home electricity consumption. And his panic attack in the restaurant when he looks at the bill also provides a lot of fun for the audience. Unfortunately, the rest of the film can only partially deliver on the promise of these good moments.

Because as is so often the case, the arc is simply overdone. Not only that Dany Boon acts in many scenes too overdone. Also the story gets more and more confused and chaotic especially in the last act. If at the beginning here and there still hintersinniger humor noticeable, brings director Fred Cavayé towards the end more and more often the sledgehammer to use. While this is still quite amusing in places, it also tugs at the nerves quite a bit. The biggest problem is that François not really likeable. It's hard to begrudge him a daughter as nice as Laura or a sympathetic girlfriend like Valérie, let alone the sympathy of his neighbors. This doesn't change even when he slowly begins to question his behavior.

Unfortunately, this results in the viewer not being particularly interested in his story. You will be entertained nevertheless. But at the latest after one hour you are only annoyed by the capers of the miser, which pushes the entertainment value of the comedy admittedly clearly down. While there are a few good laughs in the beginning, the whole thing gets so out of hand towards the finale that you're actually just glad when the end is done. If you like Dany Boon and French comedies of the more turbulent kind, you'll get enough good moments here to justify buying a movie ticket. But if you are quickly annoyed by chaotic disgusting packages, you should give this film a wide berth. Only worth seeing with restrictions!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp