Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
Max is a battle-weary veteran of the wedding-planning racket. His latest — and last — gig is a hell of a fête, involving stuffy period costumes for the caterers, a vain, hyper- sensitive singer who thinks he's a Gallic James Brown, and a morose, micromanaging groom determined to make Max's night as miserable as possible. But what makes the affair too bitter to endure is that Max's colleague and ostensible girlfriend, Joisette, seems to have written him off, coolly going about her professional duties while openly flirting with a much younger server. It's going to be a very long night… especially once the groom's aerial serenade gets underway.
C'est la vie! is a solid, enjoyable French ensemble comedy in the vein of The Dinner Game and other Veber-influenced farces — competently written with escalating chaos around a single-night wedding event. The plot is familiar (one chaotic night, ensemble of eccentrics) but executed with enough wit and rhythm to rise above average. Acting is warm and professional across the board, with Jean-Pierre Bacri's world-weary Max a particular highlight, though few performances transcend the genre. Cinematography is functional and unshowy — it captures the period château setting adequately without cinematic ambition. Novelty is moderate: the one-night-unfolding-disaster format and the milieu of wedding catering gives it a specific French flavor, but the structure is recognizably borrowed from the Toledano/Nakache playbook and doesn't break new ground. The ending resolves too neatly and sentimentally relative to the sharper, more cynical comic energy of the bulk of the film, feeling rushed and slightly unearned.