French Exit (2020) User Reviews

French Exit

[henry8-3 · 7/10 · 5 February 2022]

Michelle Pfeiffer plays an eccentric and rather lost socialite whose money has run out, so she sells everything she has and moves, with her withdrawn son to Paris, ostensibly to die before her money, which she continues to spend apace, runs out.

There is a lot going on in this quirky, surreal dark comedy / drama - including an underlying mystery regarding the death of Pfeiffer's husband and his spirit's possible occupation of their cat and her son's on / off relationship with Imogen Poots. At the centre of all this and in large part the main reason for watching this is Pfeiffer giving a superb performance as the saddened but brutally effervescent Frances. There do seems to be things missing here and not all the supporting characters have sufficient heft but overall this is great pleasure with some deft comedy certainly some weird stuff and in the end great sweetness.

See It For Michelle Pfeiffer's Wonderful Performance

[peterscarpinato · 7/10 · 20 February 2021]

Michelle Pfeiffer plays an aging socialite who finds herself broke and needing to start over. With her son and cat in tow, they take off to stay at a friend's apartment in Paris to figure things out.

The cat plays a prominent role and takes the film into the absurd realm. I could have done without this subplot as it changes the tone of the film halfway through. If they were going for surreal and absurd go in 100% or don't go there at all. The story didn't need it.

Despite that, Pfeiffer's commitment to playing this affected, sarcastic woman keeps you interested. At times she is hilarious, then gradually the layers are pulled back, revealing the pain underneath the facade. Her scenes in the latter part of the film are emotional and moving.

The supporting cast was very good as well. Lucas Hedges, the seemingly go-to young actor in Hollywood, was appropriately deadpan and amusing. But it's Pfeiffer who deserves an Oscar nomination. It's truly one of her best roles.

Underrated

[TigerHeron · 7/10 · 12 April 2021]

This is an odd movie about quirky characters. If you like films with quirky characters and you love Paris, you'll probably like this movie. You also have to have an appreciation for the fantastical and whimsical. I thought the fantasy aspects made perfect sense with the plot. Pfeiffer gives an Oscar-worthy performance. At first you won't like her character, but she grows on you.

Michelle and Paris and a black cat--What's not to like?

[JohnDeSando · 10 April 2021]

With the adjective "French" in the title French Exit, much more can be expected than someone just leaving a country. With existential echoes and philosophical attitude the French can have over a croissant, an audience can see where writer Patrick DeWitt and director Azazel Jacobs are going in this low-key drawing-room comedy.

The glamorous Michell Pfeiffer plays sixty-year-old former Manhattan socialite Frances, who encourages thoughts that go from the losses aging brings to the mortality ultimately reserved for all. She has lost her wealthy businessman husband, Franklin (voice of Tracy Letts), who returns with the help of randy seer Madeleine the Medium (Danielle Macdonald) in the form of a black cat (yes, the occult element is one of the lighter elements of a film, described as a comedy but really a darkly and quietly humorous melodrama). Call it a farce because it's French, but don't expect to laugh much.

As in the work of Wes Anderson and Woody Allen (check out the Midnight in Paris-type music), the comedic turns are due largely to eccentric characters who don't fit snugly with the overarching themes of love and friendship at the end of things. At French Exit's end, it is far more melancholy than funny.

Dutiful son Malcolm (Lucas Hedges) accompanies her to a friend's flat in Paris (one of several friends to help her through her grief such as ditsy Madame Reynard, played by Valerie Mahaffey) never certain how to take his mother's sardonic wit, or maybe just amused while perhaps not knowing it is her time to exit. Whatever, Hedges plays him vulnerable and shy to the world and her (he can't bring himself to tell his mother he's engaged, for goodness's sake)

With echoes of Sartre and Camus, French Exit reminds the audience there is no exit from our common end. Gradually Frances is shedding her wealth, friends, and family and accumulating a retinue of characters who exist to remind her, it seems, of how inextricably we are tied to others until we are not.

My recommendation is that you see it with not expectations, only opportunities.

[alejandro-bonilla · 7/10 · 14 May 2021]

I love when you see a movie that you know absolutely nothing about and therefore you do not expect anything, because when you see it, everything is a surprise, not expectations, only opportunities. French Exit managed to come to me in many ways, aesthetically clean, with a costume design like cherry on the cake and throughout the movie I couldn't stop thinking about how beautiful Michelle Pfeiffer looked.

Good movie, one great scene

[fourellen · 7/10 · 8 April 2021]

No spoiler here, but the scene with the Parisian waiter would single-handedly redeem a much weaker movie. For this one it was the cherry on the sundae.

Pretentious and lazy

[kristen_225 · 5/10 · 14 April 2021]

The movie begins well, centering on an obviously spoiled, eccentric woman and her adult, dependent son. It then goes on to follow them through the loss of their fortune and how they must rely on the kindness of a friend. Incredible and completely unbelievable situations occur before the movie finally ends, with a lack of ANY finality. I can't fault the acting, Michelle Pfeiffer does an amazing job as always and the rest of the cast is quite convincing in their roles. It appears to be the writing that is at fault. Are we TRULY to believe that a neighbor and a local private investigator can't stay in their own abodes and must move in with the main characters? And the whole idea about Pfeiffer's dead husband inhabiting a stray cat she ends up taking in, then TALKING to him via a medium is just ridiculous at best. I don't know if it was the director's intention to make us dislike Pfeiffer's character but the way she treats others and her utter lack of compassion for her own son is disturbing.

I really wanted to like this movie but when there was no conclusion at the end and it just faded to black, I would've thrown my popcorn bucket at the screen if I'd bought any. I'm sure many will like this movie, calling it quirky and inventive but I'm sorry, this was a movie that relied too much on it's main cast members to carry a sadly lacking script.

How complete nonsense can be a pleasure to watch

[carlos-pires · 7/10 · 15 June 2021]

Admittedly, the story is pure nonsense posing as something more than that. This whole endeavour only works because all the other ingredients are good. Well, all except for Michelle Pfeiffer who is absolutely amazing. Definitely worth the watch.

Monotonal from beginning to end

[tthdOz18 · 3/10 · 23 March 2021]

As watchable as she is, even Michelle Pfeiffer couldn't add any sparkle to this most tedious, pretentious script. Characters are under developed. There is only one drab mood from the moment the movie begins to its predictable (and most awaited) ending. There were no ups and down and it was as if the director had played one droning visual note throughout. You know it's an unbearable show when members in the audience start looking at the time halfway through. We saw three people check the time on their mobiles during the movie. Utterly boring. Avoid.

A woman's journey

[JankiSharma · 7/10 · 6 April 2021]

The movie French Exit is all about a rich widow Frances Price (actress Michelle Pfeiffer)who has run out of all her money because she did not expect to live that long . Frances is level headed, beautiful, kind and nice. The relationship between Frances and her son Malcolm (Lucas hedges who wasgreat in movie Manchester by the Sea)is very pleasant, caring and real. Malcolm understands his mother very well and shows his support and respect for her when he says his goodbye to girlfriend Susan (Imogen Poots) to move to Paris with his mom. Frances is very generous and enjoys seeing others happy with unexpected tips. The conversation between Frances and homeless person with a detailed plan of how he would spend $20 is very nicely done. The conversations between Frances and odd lady Mme Reynard ( Valerie Mahaffey from ABC series The Big Sky) show distinct differences between an independent woman who is in control of her life and an odd lady who longs for anybody's company to avoid being alone. There are long silences in the movie. Screenplay is good but the movie needed editing . Michelle Pfeiffer did exceptionally well as Frances. 1hr53minutes too long.

Bizarre, very unsatisfying surrealist romp

[bastille-852-731547 · 4/10 · 11 October 2020]

Azazel Jacobs' new film centers around a wealthy Manhattan socialite, Frances (Michelle Pfeiffer) and her son Malcom (Lucas Hedges.) They both move to Paris together with their cat after the death of Frances' husband. The film's tone is deadpan and absurdist, and almost feels like an uneven and often unfulfilling amalgamation of Woody Allen and Luis Buñuel. But try as it might, the film sorely lacks the intellectual wit of Woody Allen or the intricately clever ambiguity of Buñuel's best films.

The first major problem with the film is that it lacks a clear plot. It contains several short set pieces with slightly-absurd, sarcastic dialogue that could have made for mildly amusing mini-short films (a throwback-style cruise ship en route to Paris, a séancé, cocktail gatherings.) Yet none of them really help hold up the story, much less create a narrative crux to keep viewers engaged. The two main characters are moderately well-developed, but their personalities never feel especially original or unique. Even though Frances has lost a loved one, the film doesn't really have an emotional core or sense of empathy towards its characters. Instead, there's a level of coldness and unreliability even within a darkly comedic context that recalls the polarizing tones of Yorgos Lanthimos' movies. The attempts at surreal humor aren't funny or even clever; as far as dark comedy goes, the film is neither funny enough to feel well-accomplished as an original comedy nor dark enough to feel shocking and tonally opaque. The cast does serviceably fine with the material they are given, but no one gets much of a range here in character. For a movie attempting to come off as sophisticated, it also doesn't leave much for viewers to really think about or interpret underneath its narrative surface either. The only aspects of the film that I can unequivocally commend are the cinematography of Paris as well as the simple yet playfully elegant score.

All in all, this strangely forgettable film (both literally and figuratively) neither has the creativity nor wit to shine as a quirky comedy. There are ingredients here and there that could pack more of a punch within the film if given the right context within a more well-composed story, but without such cleverness, the film feels undercooked as a whole. Not recommended. 4/10

Icy Warmth

[theshanecarr · 8/10 · 14 July 2021]

A french exit is the term for when one leaves a party without saying goodbye. There's an implied disrespect when one does that; a sense of anger or boredom, and those feelings hang over much of the movie but are leavened with a sprinkling of good humour as if the departed guest had left behind some unexpected gifts.

At first glance, it seems to be an icy drama about emotionally closed off, super-wealthy New Yorkers but it turns out to be a stealthy comic/absurdist deranged tale where supernatural events are taken as normal, and mediums and private detectives can move into one's life.

The plot, such as it is, starts out with Michelle Pfeiffer's character learning that all her money has been spent. She sells off what she has left, and moves to Paris with her aimless son (played by Lucas Hedges) and their cat (I don't remember who plays the cat) to move into an apartment being lent to her by a friend.

What becomes clear is that Pfeiffer's character intends to live only as long as she still has money, and she is deliberately spending it as fast as she can.

This description doesn't do justice to the left turns the narrative takes, but I won't say more - just know that contacting the dead, mega generosity to the homeless, and a spurned fiancée all form part of the narrative.

It's a bizarre mix, and yet something about it works. Despite the iciness of Pfeiffer and the uselessness of Hedges, they attract into their lives a bizarre group of almost... friends? It's almost as if, in spite of themselves, a group of misfits become their family and unlikely emotional bonds form. It's as if humans, despite how they may have closed themselves off due to past pain, can't help forming tribes, communities who need each other.

It's as if we can put up barriers (like money) between us, but we can't keep them up - sooner or later we have to let people in, or we die...

If someone told me, they can't get too into the emotional problems of the super-wealthy, I would get that but I think there is something more universal at work here.

The screenplay is by Patrick DeWitt based on his own novel. (He also wrote the book "The Sisters Brothers" is based on.) It's directed by Azazel Jacobs. I have not seen any of Jacobs' previous work but he directs here with a sure sense of space, and a flair for the chilly atmosphere. It's not flashy but it really does the job.

Everyone is always saying there should be more less sequels/remakes/brand-extensions. This movie is weird, and that's good.

well that turned quirky

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 19 September 2021]

Widower Frances Price (Michelle Pfeiffer) is running out of money. The former New York socialite is an outcast due to some previous malfeasance. She has to sell everything. She and her son Malcolm (Lucas Hedges) are being thrown out of their apartment. Her friend Joan offers them her empty Paris apartment. Malcolm (Lucas Hedges) can do nothing but join her. He can't even tell her that he's marrying Susan (Imogen Poots) who is utterly frustrated with his acquiescence to his mother.

This starts like a loving indie of a mother son relationship. When the cross Atlantic cruise emerges, that's the start of the quirkiness and this movie turns real quirky. I like the quirkiness but maybe it should start the movie with that. It should start with the cat and the dead body. That would set up the movie morbid humor and dark quirkiness. I do like all the relationships. As for Pfeiffer, she does a good mean queen. I do wonder if somebody should dump a bowl of soup on her. The start needs to be better. I do like the Paris half more.

Maybe Cinema Is Dead

[evanston_dad · 3/10 · 25 August 2021]

Ugh, if I have to sit through one more dreary movie. Maybe cinema IS dead after all.

It's like the writer and director of "French Exit" went about making their own respective movies without consulting each other at all. The writer thought he was making a zany dark comedy in the "Harold and Maude" vein, while the director slaps the comedy down at every turn and opts instead for a morose, joyless, and droning movie that doesn't even have the courtesy to make sense.

This is another in the long line of movies that gives us a character some other character wants to not be in love with but can't help being in love with, to the point that she flies all the way to Paris to reclaim him, despite the fact that the person she's in love with is lacking a single quality that would make anyone love him in the first place. Michelle Pfeiffer gives glimmers of a feisty performance, but she's undermined by the material, and her character doesn't have any arc. The film brings together a random assortment of characters who all inexplicably sleep over nightly at Pfeiffer's apartment, despite the fact that they all are adults and have homes of their own. I'm sure we're supposed to think this is quirky and adorable, but it's irritating as hell.

The only character I came close to wanting to spend time with was Valerie Mahaffey, as a daffy but endearing friend who's adopted by Pfeiffer and her blank slate of a son (Lucas Hedges). I don't know why she wanted to be around these people, and the movie never gives us a good reason either.

What a total failure.

Grade: D-

An Oscar-worthy Performance From Pfeiffer

[rebel5 · 11 October 2020]

A surreal comedy-drama romp from director Azazel Jacobs.

I had the pleasure of seeing "French Exit" at its New York Film Festival premiere. I wasn't sure what to expect. I was familiar with the best-selling book on which it's based by author Patrick deWitt. I wasn't quite sure how the source material would translate to the big screen but by the end I was blown away. The cast is breathtaking. Pfeiffer gives one of the best performances of her career. You simply can't imagine anyone else playing Francis. Lucas Hedges is also a standout playing Francis' long-suffering son, Malcolm. Actress Valerie Mahaffey is also delightful playing the painfully awkward Mme. Reynard.

I really wish I could have watched it again - something I haven't been able to say about a film in a very long time.

Mediocre movie that had an extra unnecessary 60 minutes

[Aktham_Tashtush · 6/10 · 16 May 2021]

To sum it up ... It was just slow. Couldn't really find the "Comedy" or the "Drama" .. just very different genre of its own.

The cast was okay ,, I mean Michelle Pfeiffer was great and Lucas Hedges was really good .. but the script itself was slow and disconnected and more importantly very long .. It do believe if it was instead of 2 hours they re-edited and re montage it , it would have looked a bit more alive , and maybe we would have actually felt the comedy or some intense drama .. but it wasn't so we didn't.

I give it 5 stars for the cast, but it gets 1 for the writing and directing ... Now is it recommended !! I don't think anyone would like to sit 120 minutes of this .. so here I give you a heads up.

Extremely Odd and Not For Everyone

[sweidman-28016 · 6/10 · 12 April 2021]

"My plan was to die before the money ran out, but I kept and keep not dying, and here I am."

Based on the novel, French Exit has an aging Manhattan socialite living on what's barely left of her inheritance moving to a small apartment in Paris with her son and cat. Azazel Jacobs made The Lovers just a couple year ago. Though it didn't exactly leave an impression on me I could see a unique style. French Exit showcases this style of quirkiness in an almost unexpected way. The author of the book Patrick DeWitt also wrote the screenplay so I'd assume that this is very close to the book. He must be a great writer but when it comes to screenplay, it does veer into something less natural. Every like if dialogue sounds like it's been written for a college acceptance essay. Words do reflect on character and these people do live an extravagant life, but nothing is natural about it. It may be intended to be something less conventional, but I feel like it was over the top, and I sometimes felt stupid for not having a large enough vocabulary in my daily conversations. Anyway, the story is there and I guess the dialogue is there as well. People have been talking about how strange of a movie this is and I now get it. There are many WTF moments. One in particular (though I already heard this spoiler) makes no sense but it works. Patrick DeWitt must've been on something when he wrote it because I'm just so confused why it's apart of the story.

The performances are very good. I couldn't care much for any character, though. Little by little the ensemble grows and we get more characters that add to this absurd story. Michelle Pfeiffer, obviously, is brilliant having received a Globe nod for her performance. To my surprise, my favorite performance came from a supporting role, that of Valerie Mahaffey as Mme. Reynard. She's just electric with her very odd character. Most of the comedy comes from her. I'm glad we get to know her more throughout the story because she made every scene she had a fun time. The movie drags itself longer than it needs to be. Many times I thought it was the end but it kept going for longer and longer. It's slow-paced in a way that it does feel long. Although some scenes bored me into a headache, I did have an enjoyable time watching. About halfway through the movie (especially when you get to the strangeness) it picks up and the rest is a good time. It kept tipping back and forth whether it knew what it was doing so I would consider it uneven. Of course, French Exit won't be for everyone. Comedy is subjective and it takes the right person to find all the jokes amusing, and with the quirky story you also need the right person. I'm open to anything so I found myself entertained. Though nobody will probably watch this since they probably never heard of it or will in the future, I would suggest this for something off-beat that makes you feel pretentious.

Michelle is great...the movie is not

[kq999 · 4/10 · 13 May 2021]

As much as I love everything about Michelle Pfeiffer and her performance in French Exit is wonderful, the film itself is not.

The story is old and goes like this.... I am a rich socialite; therefore, I am eccentric/quirky and so is everyone in my life. We all know that is not how real life plays out and I am getting very tired of that storyline.

As mentioned all the characters are strange in one way or another. They don't seem to fit with each other or with Michelle's character. A very strange mishmash of people who do not fit together or even seem to like each other.....they all have some underlying story that does not go anywhere.

I got the impression that there is supposed to be some deep, dark meaning attached to this story. BUT I don't like playing guessing games and prefer everything is out in the open.

"Two Little Old Ladies"

[Intermissionman_ · 7/10 · 18 April 2021]

A Recently Broke Woman (Michelle Pfeiffer) and her confused and troubled Son (Lucas Hedges) have issues with a Cat and Mortality . Plenty of Dark Humor, Giggles and Odd Supporting characters. Set in PARIS. Adapted from Book 🗼

Absolutely horrible movie

[stackanon · 1/10 · 14 May 2021]

I don't know how people rated this movie great. I didn't find any part of it to have dark humour either. It was slow paced, boring and depressing. The only credit I'll give it is that it was well acted. Just not sure who wants to waste over an hour of their life watching a self centred, horrible womens day to day struggle of having to live without millions and dragging her poor son down with her. Horrible depressing movie with zero entertainment value as far as Im concerned.

Mixed Feelings

[michelleothmanmo · 7/10 · 24 October 2021]

Hilarious and painful, yet heartwarming and relatable. Patrick deWitt's French Exit is visualized in a just-right quirky vibe and fashionable manner, I love it.

One of the Worst Films of All Time..

[drhersh · 1/10 · 11 June 2021]

Yes, Michelle Pfeiffer can act.. And the cat was very intelligent.. otherwise a truly meandering, meaningless, but especially pretentious, indulgent, dishonest, narcissistic waste of time.. No plot, no believable characters, no character arc, a true waste of money and time. I am sure the director and writer just LOVED themselves for producing this homage to their own imagined brilliance.

impressionnant!

[AhmedSpielberg99 · 8/10 · 12 May 2021]

"Do you ever feel that you've had adulthood thrust upon you at too young an age? And that... you're still essentially a child... mimicking the behaviors of the grown-ups all around you so they won't uncover the meager contents of your heart?"

A few minutes in, I thought this is going to be one of these movies that adopt some sort of a false pretense in order to satirize the rich and upper class. Well, as I finished the movie I still think it is. But the story's attempts to dodge clichés surrounding this type of films had me constantly not only striving to classify it, but also quite baffled to know what's the point of it in the first place. Suffice it to say, it meanders a lot, especially regarding its tone which I'm not sure either the first act or Pfeiffer's magnetic performance as the delightfully sardonic Frances Price were enough to set it properly. As I said, it's meandering. And the whimsy of it being turned up to eleven in spasmodic bursts - while perfectly suits the oddball characters and the Anderson-esque style the movie has about it - feels a bit incongruous with the tender and emotive core of the story that I could catch glimpses of as the story progresses and its caustic layer being peeled off sporadically. With some touches that border on surrealism and a beguilingly sinster flair, I believe the movie become very close to going completely off the rails in its latter half to the point of stretching its believability a little too far. But everything was done efficiently and with great panache so much so I couldn't help reconciling myself with whatever this film is trying to achieve and I think I was well rewarded. By the end, my concerns were slapped across the face for everything seemed to make perfect sense despite being admittedly all over the place, and I finally could figure out what it is about - hopefully. Without getting into details to avoid spoiling anything, I think French Exit is a character study of a woman, Frances Price, who tries to break away from the phony life she leads. She's fundamentally a good and "real" person, but she's confined to the stereotypes of her aristocratic social strata. She takes a huge step towards fulfilling her purpose, only to find that the consequences of such action come arbitrarily and at a time she's neither financially, mentally nor emotionally prepared for, the thing that resulted in her having a midlife crisis of sorts. Lucas Hedges does an excellent job at complementing this with his understated performance as Frances's son, Malcolm. But Pfeiffer really knocked it out of the park here! French Exit is a bizarre satirical dramedy that I may have enjoyed a little too much. It boasts some deadpan humour that I couldn't resist. It might not be everyone's cup of tea, but it's definitely worth checking out.

Subtle Charmer

[onebusygirll · 7/10 · 10 April 2022]

I don't understand the reviews that trash this movie, primarily because the complaints seem to stem from the type of movie this is and disappointment that it isn't something else.

Slight, subtle, art house-type movies typically appeal to a certain kind of moviegoer so I'm confused why this movie would even be something a viewer expecting outright comedy, big plots or themes or action - some of the complaints about the film - would ever select to watch. This would never appeal to my spouse, who prefers superhero movies. I, on the other hand, personally like subtle movies about reflection of one's life and choices, and the damage or outcomes that can result from those choices...which is what I felt this movie was about.

Michelle Pfeiffer and Lucas Hedges, as mother and son - as well as the rest of the supporting cast (especially Valerie Mahaffey as Madame Reynard) - were great. All around good performances with a sprinkling of humor; I didn't expect belly laughs. Michelle Pfeiffer as Frances was very effective as a woman coming to terms with the vanity, superficiality, and naïveté of her younger years and the mistakes made in her marriage, with her finances, and with her now-adult son. She presents as strong but aloof, keeping people at a distance as a means to protect herself - only to find enjoyment and a family of sorts with a full house of strangers who have assembled around her in her quest to find a cat presumed to carry the spirit of her dead husband.

For sure, not a lot goes on action-wise. Just Frances loosening up emotionally enough to come to terms with her current circumstances. Slight and bittersweet, but not horrible by any means.

Disappointing

[atractiveeyes · 4/10 · 13 May 2021]

The best thing about this film is Michelle Pfeiffer's amazing performance. Lucas Hedges is very good too. The plot at first seems really promising and interesting but then it takes a very stupid turn. In addition to the stupid story, the movie has so many silly childish nonsensical moments. French Exit could've been a great film but it's just disappointing and an unsatisfying watch.