Quartile rating: 7.5/10 · 1 rating
When the boss' unlucky daughter is missing in South America, Campana is sent to watch the boss' most unlucky employee who is sent as a private detective in hopes he can duplicate the daughter's mistakes.
La Chèvre is a genuinely inventive French comedy built around an inspired high-concept premise: pairing an accident-prone detective with an equally unlucky civilian to trace a missing person by replicating her misfortunes. Depardieu and Pierre Richard have exceptional comic chemistry, elevating the material well above average acting for the genre. The novelty of the 'sympathy of misfortune' conceit is distinctive enough to set the film apart from standard buddy comedies, and the Veber formula here feels fresh rather than recycled. Cinematography is functional travelogue work — competent but unremarkable for the South American settings. The ending resolves pleasantly but doesn't add much beyond the expected comic payoff.