3.5/5

Review by John P. Harvey.

Jérôme Commandeur, who directed and co-wrote this movie, co-stars as Jordy, one of three men who at school 30 years earlier had been awful to most of their classmates and are shocked to receive news of the death of their classmate Daniel (Michaël Abiteboul). Together, Jordy and his two friends, Maxime (François Damiens) and Hervé, also known as the celebrated singer Baby Loup (Laurent Lafitte), decide that the class of 30 years ago should hold a party to honour Daniel’s life. But virtually nobody they let down in school wants to know them.

There is one person, though, who at school had feelings for Jordy: Anne Rougier (Vanessa Paradis). Now a doctor, Anne discovers that Jordy is at his lowest ebb, and she pitches in to help.

It’s difficult to sum up Class Reunion to reflect accurately what occurs. It’s far easier to say what it’s about, which we could say is old school resentments coming home to roost. It’s a comedy, certainly, and there’s a lot of fun in the unpredictability of some of its characters’ reactions to one another as their shared histories arise.

Modern film storytelling invites audiences to — at least eventually — grasp a chain of cause and effect that ties the story into a plausible whole. Absence of links in parts of that chain left at least some members of the audience wondering how some of its later scenes arise. But Class Reunion is a very light-hearted movie in which it’s possible to let such considerations go; and the characters and their actions essentially stand up to the plausibility test.

With actors of the calibre of Paradis, Commandeur, Damiens, and Lafitte, a little romance, a wealth of misfortunes, and a soundtrack of great French pop songs, this is an easy movie to watch.

Screening at Palace cinemas.