"Un profil pour deux" or "Mr. Stein Goes Online" is a French movie from this year (2017), very recent release written and directed by Stéphane Robelin. After three short films, this is also his third full feature film and we will see if it can get as popular as "All Together". If it does, then this will be mostly thanks to longtime French actor Pierre Richard, who is mostly known for the crime comedies he starred in next to Gérard Depardieu. In his 80s now, he proves to audiences and himself that he can still carry a film nicely. His character's name is Pierre as well. He was probably the main reason why I enjoyed this 100-minute movie. He may be first-cast here even, but still I would say that Yannis Lespert's character (Alex) is much more in the center of it all. The story starts with him as well and we see how he meets his future girlfriend and Pierre's granddaughter. Alex ends up as the internet teacher to Pierre and this connection quickly causes a lot of mayhem to them, some funny some not when Pierre starts exploring the internet on his own. And dating sites on the internet as well. This is where Fanny Valette (Fanny) comes into play. She gave a good performance too and her looks were really stunning of course.
I think there were some really good moments, some touching stuff too and the French once again show Germans how to make convincing films that are a mix of comedy and drama. Maybe our filmmakers learn something from them, so in the future we don't have to deal with Schweighöfer's and M'Barek's garbage hopefully. I would like to mention the one scene especially when the two male characters and three female characters end up together at the old man's apartment, not too far from the end anymore. That was comedy writing at its best really and I want to mention Stéphane Bissot because she was just amazing there, maybe the very best from the quintet. It's all good with this movie: the acting, the writing and even if there were minor weaknesses at times (really just tiny ones), there was nothing close to hurting the film overall. For example I liked how they included Pierre's deceased wife because she played a crucial role when it comes to his feelings, but at the same time they did not turn it into a sob story. I think one reason why French comedies are so far superior to Germans right now is also because the music is so much better and the soundtrack never tries to evoke emotion from a very cheap perspective.
In addition, it needs to be said that Richard's character felt very authentic. Some people may say why the hell would he even start with such an endeavor or why would he believe that Fanny had any romantic interest in him, but let me just say that old people understand signals differently and think differently when it comes to their approach and understanding of otherwise very clear situations. I am speaking from experience here. Anyway, maybe the lead performance by Lespert was a bit underwhelming, but it also needs to be said that his material is far from being as good as it seems and there was never a doubt in terms of the screenplay that he would play second fiddle to Richard, who is simply the star here. The film is a bit predictable, but I don't think that hurts it at all. For example it becomes easy to see that there is no perspective for the main character and the granddaughter when it comes to their relationship and that he will certainly end up with the other woman. I guessed this correctly already before he met Fanny. The one unpredictable aspect, however, was what would happen to Pierre. But here I guessed either he will die happily or will find someone via online dating too and yep that's how things eventually turned out too. Maybe the ending was a bit too happy for my taste as pretty much everybody ens up with who he wanted really. It's all good though. In terms of Pierre, I want to make a reference to some scenes. We see him in bed with Juliette and in bed with Fanny. We see his first meeting with Juliette and his first meeting with Fanny. And there you already see the major differences which make it obvious that there is no way he will end up with Juliette. Also the ways in which Juliette's ex-boyfriend is depicted as a likable fellow during the online webcam conversation or also how much Pierre likes him makes it easy to guess that he will get back together with Juliette.
As a whole, it was a truly enjoyable watch. I felt that they missed out on the perfect way to end it, namely the moment Fanny and Alex kiss and she forgave him and if the credits had rolled in there I may have thought about a higher rating perhaps even. But the scene at the bar was okay too and somewhat funny admittedly, even if it takes a bit of the significance away. It's a decent epilogue I guess. This one is certainly closer to getting four stars out of five than to getting only two stars out of five. One of the best 2017 comedies from 2017 I have seen so far and I very much recommend the watch.
I think there were some really good moments, some touching stuff too and the French once again show Germans how to make convincing films that are a mix of comedy and drama. Maybe our filmmakers learn something from them, so in the future we don't have to deal with Schweighöfer's and M'Barek's garbage hopefully. I would like to mention the one scene especially when the two male characters and three female characters end up together at the old man's apartment, not too far from the end anymore. That was comedy writing at its best really and I want to mention Stéphane Bissot because she was just amazing there, maybe the very best from the quintet. It's all good with this movie: the acting, the writing and even if there were minor weaknesses at times (really just tiny ones), there was nothing close to hurting the film overall. For example I liked how they included Pierre's deceased wife because she played a crucial role when it comes to his feelings, but at the same time they did not turn it into a sob story. I think one reason why French comedies are so far superior to Germans right now is also because the music is so much better and the soundtrack never tries to evoke emotion from a very cheap perspective.
In addition, it needs to be said that Richard's character felt very authentic. Some people may say why the hell would he even start with such an endeavor or why would he believe that Fanny had any romantic interest in him, but let me just say that old people understand signals differently and think differently when it comes to their approach and understanding of otherwise very clear situations. I am speaking from experience here. Anyway, maybe the lead performance by Lespert was a bit underwhelming, but it also needs to be said that his material is far from being as good as it seems and there was never a doubt in terms of the screenplay that he would play second fiddle to Richard, who is simply the star here. The film is a bit predictable, but I don't think that hurts it at all. For example it becomes easy to see that there is no perspective for the main character and the granddaughter when it comes to their relationship and that he will certainly end up with the other woman. I guessed this correctly already before he met Fanny. The one unpredictable aspect, however, was what would happen to Pierre. But here I guessed either he will die happily or will find someone via online dating too and yep that's how things eventually turned out too. Maybe the ending was a bit too happy for my taste as pretty much everybody ens up with who he wanted really. It's all good though. In terms of Pierre, I want to make a reference to some scenes. We see him in bed with Juliette and in bed with Fanny. We see his first meeting with Juliette and his first meeting with Fanny. And there you already see the major differences which make it obvious that there is no way he will end up with Juliette. Also the ways in which Juliette's ex-boyfriend is depicted as a likable fellow during the online webcam conversation or also how much Pierre likes him makes it easy to guess that he will get back together with Juliette.
As a whole, it was a truly enjoyable watch. I felt that they missed out on the perfect way to end it, namely the moment Fanny and Alex kiss and she forgave him and if the credits had rolled in there I may have thought about a higher rating perhaps even. But the scene at the bar was okay too and somewhat funny admittedly, even if it takes a bit of the significance away. It's a decent epilogue I guess. This one is certainly closer to getting four stars out of five than to getting only two stars out of five. One of the best 2017 comedies from 2017 I have seen so far and I very much recommend the watch.