Potiche (François Ozon, 2010)

Getting Deneuve and Depardieu in the same billing must have been too much to resist. Of course, being troupers, they provide value for money, but this is a limp vehicle for their talents. The premise is basically Made in Dagenham turned into a farce, set in the '70s in an attempt to lend some verisimilitude to the anachronistic notion of Deneuve as a trophy wife neglected by her philandering husband. She takes over his factory when a union dispute drives him to ill health, and soon has the whole shebang wrapped around her little finger. The principal interest of the piece is seeing the director avoid all his customary misanthropy, but at the cost of creating nothing but fluff. Ozon does complex angst proficiently, and should stick to his knitting: this just gets far too silly long before the singalong finale.

4/10