Rebels - Don't mess with them!

After 15 years, former provincial beauty queen Sandra (Cécile de France) returns to her small hometown in northern France. With her meager resume, however, she only finds work in a fish cannery, where she is joined on the assembly line by housewife Nadine (Yolande Moreau) and single mother Marilyn (Audrey Lamy). The three women couldn't be more different, really. But when Sandra is harassed by her boss one night, the three stick together. However, this leads to the unintentional death of the boss. When the women find a bag full of money at his place, it's clear: they can't call the police. Without further ado, the dead boss is packed in canned goods and disposed of, and the women are happy about the unexpected windfall. Too bad it's not only the police who soon start asking them a lot of unpleasant questions. A local gangster, for whom the bag was actually intended, also sets out to find his money and quickly gets on the women's trail. But the three do not want to admit defeat so easily.

Rebellious Women is a successful comedy, which can score especially by the great actress trio Cécile de France, Yolande Moreau and Audrey Lamy. But the fact that the story is peppered with a fair amount of social satire at the beginning also makes the film worth watching for long stretches. Sure, a few characters are overplayed and some dramaturgical aspects seem slightly contrived. But all in all, the initial situation doesn't really seem implausible. It is understandable how the women get into their predicament and also why they resort to such drastic means to keep the money.

The three are very interestingly drawn characters, who have some slight stereotypical characteristics, but are still pleasantly versatile. This makes for not only some very amusing moments, but also some quite surprising ones. Especially in the first 60 minutes the movie works really well just because of this. Then, however, the whole thing drifts too much into Tarantino-esque territory. Thereby, the movie doesn't lose its entertainment value, but its realism. The big showdown is amusing, but completely absurd and a little overdone.

But since the film is also over after a crisp 87 minutes, the small weaknesses with which the rebels have to fight, hardly weigh negatively. Female power, black humor and a story that is well built up to a certain point make this leaden comedy despite minor point deductions still quite: worth seeing!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp