My Afternoons With Margueritte

We started this one and got about half an hour into it. Gérard Depardieu stars as a rather simple and illiterate laborer who strikes up a friendship with 96-year-old Gisèle Casadesus (who doesn’t look a day over 80) on a park bench. They have names for all the 19 pigeons that gather there to be fed by her. There’s a cast of characters that frequent a bar, where Depardieu hangs out. Some of them are verbally abusive to him. And it just didn’t stir up enough interest with us. Mr. Depardieu is either wearing a lot of padding around the middle and ass, or else he’s bulked up beyond even the slovenliness of Marlon Brando. The whole thing just seemed too labored, and didn’t hint that we would be seeing anything wildly original. Or even interesting. It could be, I admit, that we didn’t give it enough of a chance, or were in the wrong mood. In which case … sorry about that.