The Fantastic Journey of Margot & Marguerite (2020)

The Fantastic Journey of Margot & Marguerite (2020). 1h 29m

“Aimed at the childrenu0026#39;s market , u0026quot;lu0026#39;aventure des Marguerite u0026quot; borrows a lot from other works , such as u0026quot;pleasant villeu0026quot; and countless others ; it suffers accordingly.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThat said, can it appeal to a young audience? Perhaps so,but only partially : the part taking place during the occupation is ,in spite of numerous implausibilities, by far the best .u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe modern Marguerite hints at u0026quot;la grande vadrouilleu0026quot; and the occupied France is as accurate and as plausible as Gérard Ouryu0026#39;s world. The exodus , when the French were running away from the German armies took place two years before (and not in 1942);Hemingway was not in France at the time ,he fought in Spain and came back at the end of WW2.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eBut if you forget history ,this half is pleasant enough: itu0026#39;s like a fairytale ,after all , as the trick of the trunk shows :so why wouldnu0026#39;t Marguerite help Ernest Hemingway work on u0026quot;the old man and the seau0026quot;? As the resistant fighters networks were top secret , talking about them in a loud voice in a café is comic indeed. The escape from the detention camp takes the biscuit : dad is discouraged , waiting,waiting , but girlie comes to cheer him up ,and voilà! A plane pursuednby an officer whose shots are in vain (an escape which recalls u0026quot;la grande vadrouilleu0026quot;)u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eOn the other hand, the part in modern times is ponderous and even crude (the burps competition) : with the bland long-haired boy ,who seems himself an anachronism (he looks like a seventies kid), itu0026#39;s really derivative (the girl whose father has left home and is replaced by a surly stepdad ) .Only the meeting with the old lady (played by Genevieve Casile ,essentially a stage actress who performed all the classics) ,a trick used often before (Ellen Burstyn in u0026quot;interstellaru0026quot;,Teresa Wright in u0026quot;somewhere in timeu0026quot; ) , makes up for the paucity of this half-screenplay.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eHalf a pleasant movie ,you make it on the percentages ,but lose out on the bonuses : but on a rainy day,itu0026#39;s always useful.”