Another film we saw at the French Film Festival, Daddy Cool (original title: Quinze ans et demi) is a slightly silly movie that tells the somewhat improbable tale of a French research scientist (Philippe, played by Daniel Auteil) who has spent most of his fifteen-year-old daughter Eglantine's life working in the USA, while she and her mother reside in France. Circumstances require that he returns to France to look after his daughter while her mother is otherwise occupied and since father and daughter aren't well-acquainted and father is unused to the habits of teenage girls the whole situation is problematic for both parties.
Daddy Cool is a comedy, and as you'd expect covers well-trodden ground like teenage moodiness, teenage tastes in music, teenage disinterest in breakfast, interest in the opposit sex and attachment to mobile phones and internet chat. It tries to be a bit quirky with Albert Einstein being Philippe's imaginary friend/mentor but I don't think it really succeeded.
There's a love interest for Philippe (a woman in the lab he's working in) and he manages to find a cure for her baldness along with achieving a meaningful relationship with his daughter in the time he has in France. Of course he decides to stay and they should all live happily ever after.
The best bits of this film for me were Eglantine's larger-than-life step-father who makes videos about being a good parent to teenagers, and getting a glimpse of texting in French - ki for qui, for example. Neither of which will compel you off your sofa and out to the movies, and justifiably so.
Anne's rating 2/5.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
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