Quartile rating: 5.5/10 · 1 rating
François Gautier is stingy! Saving puts the joy, it causes pay sweats. His life is set for the sole purpose of never spend anything. A life that will switch in one day: he falls in love and discovers he has a daughter he did not know existed. Forced to lie in order to hide his terrible default, this will be the beginning for François problems. Because lie can sometimes be expensive. Very expensive…
Penny Pincher! is a fairly formulaic French comedy built around a well-worn premise — the miser forced to change his ways by love and family. The plot hits predictable beats with little surprise, and the comedy leans on standard situational gags about miserliness. Acting and cinematography are competent but unremarkable, typical of mid-budget French comedies of the era. The novelty is limited, as the stingy-protagonist archetype has been thoroughly explored in French comedy (echoes of The Miser and countless others). The ending follows the expected redemptive arc without offering anything memorable or subversive. A passable crowd-pleaser that doesn't distinguish itself in any meaningful dimension.