Le Prénom (Alexandre de La Patellière & Matthieu Delaporte, 2013)

What a curiously old-fashioned thing What's in a Name? feels like. Stagebound, which is clear from early on since it was based on a play, it never actually overcomes that. A small cast bounce off each other in a single set in psychologically unconvincing ways, starting with one of them pretending he's about to call his imminent new-born Adolf, which causes a ruckus, and then leading to all the rest successively unburdening themselves of their resentments and revelations. Simply talking or screaming at a mile a minute does not equate to comedy, and while some of the separate exchanges are witty enough, even occasionally perceptive, the total amounts to nothing much more than the self-absorbed middle-class dinner party waffle that French cinema, for all its successes, is too frequently guilty of.

5/10