This turned to be a more commercial film than the titles that usually end up in my to watch list. I suppose I was misled by its sky high Rotten Tomatoes rating and the fact that actress Noémie Merlant who so impressed the world in Portrait of a Lady on Fire won a César Award for her performance here. In the end this is an entertaining, well-balanced crime comedy but it’s a little old-fashioned and not particularly artistic.

Sylvie is an older woman who volunteers in a theatre program for prisoners. She falls in love with an inmate Michel, to the disapproval of her adult son Abel who accuses her of making the same mistake again and again. She marries Michel anyway and when he is released from prison, decides to open a flower shop in partnership with him. Abel continues to be suspicious and ineptly tries to spy on him without success. His friend and coworker at the aquarium where he works, Clémence, tries to help but is quickly discovered by Michel and befriends him. During the opening of the flower shop however, Abel discovers that Michel is partially paying for the store space by robbing a shipment of caviar from a delivery truck. To keep Sylvie happy, Michel offers Abel a chance to participate in the robbery. Clémence is especially enthusiastic and persuades Abel to accept. Meanwhile Abel is trying to get over the death of his wife and it is obvious he and Clémence have feelings for one another.

This is a rather standard plot and the surprise is that it’s played so straight. Even the crime of stealing caviar from a truck must have been specifically chosen as a relatively inoffensive one, as Clémence says, and perhaps makes for a good ‘eat the rich’ statement. It is solidly executed, with Sylvie being comically over passionate about her love, Michel’ being of ‘s Moroccan descent possibly being a reason for Michel to be especially wary of him, Clémence being oddly competent at being a criminal and so on. The humor is good, the musical choices are spot on and I even like that this is set in a big city in France that isn’t Paris. The ending is pretty much as you’d expect with an old-fashioned ‘crime does not pay’ message.

All in all, this is a perfectly cromulent commercial film but hardly anything worth raving about. Noémie Merlant’s César Award feels like making up for her not winning one earlier. It is somewhat interesting that this was directed by Louis Garrel himself who plays Abel here but is better known as an actor in other, more famous films like The Dreamers.