Gazon maudit

Serial adulterer Laurent (Chabat) has all the women he wants, and in Loli (Abril), a beautiful, blissfully ignorant wife. At first the intrusion of butch, cigar-smoking Marijo (Balasko) seems no more than a minor irritation (her van breaks down outside their home, and Loli immediately takes a shine to her), but when she puts the moves on his wife, Laurent cannot contain his shock and revulsion. His reaction sends the women into each other's arms, and soon he's negotiating for equal conjugal rights. An astute, modern spin on the ménage-à-trois farce, this begins like one of Bertrand Blier's tongue-in-cheek intellectual provocations, with Balasko reprising her unlikely seductress role from Trop belle pour toi! Unlike Blier, however, Balasko (who also wrote and directed) actually seems to like her characters, even as she accentuates their foibles: Laurent's chauvinist hypocrisy, Loli's naive pride and jealousy, and Marijo's domineering self-confidence. These stereotypes are endowed with rather more dignity than their circumstances allow, and most of the playing is marvellously sympathetic. A very funny and expertly timed farce.