Thomas Cailley’s assured debut is a weirdly self-aware yet self defeating affair, seemingly looking to take on the tropes of the trite and tested Rom-Com’s and give it a Nihilstic Doomsday prep makeover but never manages to get past the point of lacing up it’s combat boots and becomes a ploddingly, pedestrian outing. Given the gag-reflex testing title “Love At First Sight” over here, we’ll stick with the French ‘un.
The vaguest of plot goes with: Happy-go-lucky young lad( Kévin Azaïs – the wettest of lettuce here) meets curt, confident, Extremist young girl( Adèle Haenel – a crackingly self assured performance), both join a military camp and romance (kind of) blossoms all set to a recession-era backdrop. Touching upon the extinction of species’ on the planet and the crumbling of society as a sub-plot while throwing our way a piss-warm romance is a solidly safe mis-step, it lacks the courage of it’s convictions.
As playful and full of energy though it strives to be, what we’re left with is a thankfully short (running at 98 minutes or thereabouts) and flimsy effort that invokes better, promises little and under delivers. Rite of passage?
Shite of passage mate.
