The worst thing you can do with a French comedy is try to take it seriously. Pomposity gets you nowhere. Suspend disbelief, tuck your tongue firmly in your cheek and go along for the ride!
I've seen my share of outstandingly bad French comedy, just as there are bad British or American comedies out there. But this one, drawn from a comic of the same title, made me laugh out loud repeatedly on what had started as a very bad day (not to mention the night before). Part of the fun was seeing so many French actors I recognised from other films, comic as well as serious: Isabelle Nanty is hysterical as the English teacher (when did she work at my school?), Arnaud Ducret of "Parents: Mode D'Emploi" fame had me in stitches as the gym teacher (I swear I've had that guy in my class!) and who would have thought Phillipe Duclos, the "bad guy" from Spirale, could be so funny as the hapless principal?
Yes, it is silly. Yes, the ending is a bit "out there" (but no more so than say, "9 to 5"). I can cite more than a dozen or so big "comedy blockbusters" from American studios that didn't make me laugh once. Watching this film was like porking out on chocolate chip cookies and junk food; I wouldn't want to do it every day, but today it was just what I needed.
