After You... is your more Hollywoodised French farce; a concept comedy driven by offbeat, eccentric encounters imbued with the topic of love or with the issue of fondness for another human being; primarily between two male leads of binary opposition whose lives unceremoniously clash for our amusement. The Hollywoodised impression is omnipresent throughout, and its sense of prominence goes right down to the fact that at one point it opts for the old "numerous parties at a restaurant" scenario, a situation in which one character is 'in' on the entire gag as the presence of certain others and their own parties at a restaurant threaten to ruin everything that has preceded this perilous point. I think this may be one of the few French film to ever take its lead, in terms of its comedy source, from an American picture along the lines of something like Mrs. Doubtfire.
In spite of this, the film is not without a certain charm; the politic of the thing, always a sure sign of how rotten the hearts of the makers are, appear to just about eventually slot into the right places – indeed, it might have a been a sure sight worse. Where we don't believe in any of the characters as being of a nature that resembles much more than that of 'stock', we enjoy the perilous mix up of emotions and expressions which certain characters therein begin to feel themselves torn toward; the bulk of it resulting in an often amusing, lightly played cocktail of chaos. If the later scenes rely on the drawn-out-to-some, aforementioned restaurant scenario of whoever threatening to stumble upon whatever, then it is at least to the film's credit we fear the looming revelations.
The film follows that of Antoine Letoux, a headwaiter at an expensive seafood restaurant played by acting stalwart Daniel Auteuil, and the complications born out of his saving of a man from suicide and bringing him into his life. Letoux is busy at his job when we first see him, leading a chaotic working existence seeing to several tables and helping several customers, practically all at once. We draw on the conclusion he's rather apt at balancing several things at once, something which will crucially come into play later on, but a border-line obsessive at what he does to the point that he substitutes getting away on time to a date with his girlfriend, Marilyne Canto's Christine, purely so as to attend to another table in need. The song playing over these images, indeed an overtune of sorts overbearing the opening credits and thus engulfing the rest of the film, alludes to an individual leaning towards impending disaster as they journey, although perhaps not necessarily being as bothered about it as one would expect. Letoux's situation, you might say, is representative of these lyrics, the man careening down the rocky road he's on towards trouble; strife and disaster: Pierre Salvadori's film a capturing of this chapter and all of the comic shenanigans than come with it.
On the way home from the workplace, a shortcut through a park to hasten a rendez-vous, the excursion sees him stumble across that aforementioned attempted suicidee. He is Louis (García), a man saved from a hanging and as a consequence taken in by Letoux so as to be helped. As individuals, the two men could not be much in the way of further apart; Letoux's measured, in-tune demeanour and somewhat older age standing in contrast to that of Louis' very often still, often stilted body-language which goes hand in hand with this younger man's tendency to stare off into space at whatever opportunity. Letoux, established to be living life in his nice apartment with a thus-far healthy relationship, goes against Louis' wandering, drifting situation and dilapidated marital capacity with that of later player of greater prominence Blanche (Kiberlain), something that led him to attempt death in the first place.
A wily tale is spun out of these beginnings. Where most Hollywood movies of this ilk arrive with common complaints in the form of why it is that a certain female has either spent the time she has with our lead, or is indeed continuing to spend the amount of time with him; Christine's eventual departure from proceedings after the placement of her and her relationship with the lead second to his work, and with certain others, is a refreshing breaking away from seemingly ill-minded tradition. This is out of Letoux's bonding with Louis, and his gradual desiring of Blanche; a commonplace florist looking to marry another man after the attempt at infiltrating her life in the style of a private-investigator so as to garner answers for Louis. The film gets a little muddled as it proceeds with its narrative, which it entangles itself in a little more than is required; the film is probably twenty or so minutes too long and while there are laughs, the gaps between them are longer than is desired. Letoux's Samaritan act makes for good value and Auteuil rises to the material making it far more watchable than it might have been. The film thinks it's a lot more dramatic than it is; the reconstruction of Louis' life at the hands of Letoux and his own affections towards another woman make for rather sensitive subject matter causing the film to splutter in where its priorities lie in regards to telling a situational farce or a humble piece about a man's deep feelings, but there is enough, if not an awful lot, to enjoy although nary a great deal to feel totally dispassionate about, in what is a wavy but effective comedy.
