Little Darling

Is this a black, miserabilist comedy or a serious drama? As with L'Humanité, produced by the same team, it's sometimes hard to tell. My guess is that writer/director Villacèque is trying to do a Mike Leigh, but in slightly more serious mode, as she charts the courtship of the plain, virginal and naive thirty-something of the title (that's how she's addressed, at any rate, by her over-protective and likewise worldly-unwise suburban parents) by a seedy, insecure and utterly unreliable chancer. Inexplicably all three look up to him, welcoming him as a romantic, canny hero. It's a rather patronising, even ugly film, not without some visual virtues and brave performances, but it leaves a sour taste in the mouth.