Written by Fanny Chesnel and Marion Vernoux
Directed by Marion Vernoux
France, 2013
The opening credits to the new French film Bright Days Ahead, so named for the senior club the lead character joins in the opening scenes offer a sense of the urgency that the film itself isn’t interested in matching. Director Marion Vernoux cuts between the credits, presented in a stylish and large font, and Fanny Ardant’s protagonist, and does so quickly. The movie that follows these credits, which are dealt with briskly, is more laid-back in its style and presentation. While fast pacing isn’t a requirement for quality filmmaking, the imbalance is hard not to notice, as it’s unclear what Vernoux’s choice belies. Did she mean to throw the audience off guard from the outset? Was it simply a case of her wanting to spend as little time as possible on non-story matters? The answer is impenetrable; while Bright Days Ahead is a more easygoing tale of May-December infidelity than might be presented in a Western setting, the basic plot points are unavoidably familiar.
Ardant plays Caroline, a retired dentist who struggles to keep her daily life from being infinitely dull. She’s married to Philippe (Patrick Chesnais), and though they’ve clearly been together for many years, she finds that his mundane lifestyle only adds to her boring twilight years. So she trepidatiously joins a club for seniors called Bright Days Ahead, which offers various classes and workshops covering acting and exercises to computer know-how. It’s in the latter class that Caroline becomes attracted to her much younger teacher, Julien (Laurent Lafitte). Much to her surprise, the feeling is mutual so, in spite of her humdrum marriage, she and Julien take up an affair that starts out a secret before becoming more obvious to everyone around them.
If there’s anything notably different about this take on infidelity than would happen in the States, it’s that last point: it doesn’t take very long for people to notice Caroline and Julien’s tryst, and even fewer seem to care. It’s revealed that Julien is about as close to a free spirit as you can get these days; Caroline isn’t the only woman he’s sleeping with, and they eventually create ground rules wherein their sexual fling can coexist alongside her own marriage as well as his other women. However, it’s no surprise that the major conflict of Bright Days Ahead is the obvious one: will Philippe find out about what Caroline’s been up to, and what would his reaction be? Vernoux and co-writer Fanny Chesnel present the whole scenario in a much less melodramatic fashion than might be expected, but at the end of the day, they veer into the predictable when the plot matters.
Ardant is quite good, plotting aside, as a woman who can barely believe that anyone–especially someone the age of her daughter–would still find her sexually attractive. Caroline has a fractured past, specific to the how and why of her retirement from dentistry, and Ardant does a fine job of imbuing the character with this often hinted-at past history. Lafitte’s character is arguably as fascinating; though he’s younger and more hedonistic, that very hedonism seems at odds with the nearly oppressive sameness of the lives of the people he’s teaching at Bright Days Ahead. Their interactions, in and out of the bedroom, make up the most compelling parts of Bright Days Ahead, even as any perceptive audience member must know that their lust can’t last.
And so it goes, as the final 30 minutes of Bright Days Ahead mostly does exactly what anyone would expect it to. Up until the third act, this film presents a nice twist of the May-December coupling, not just because the older party is a woman but because fewer people are raising their eyebrows or clucking their tongues at this relationship. And the central figures in the film are played well by the leads, if not remarkably. As the film continues to its inexorable end, though, a fear grows that its writers will end things for Caroline and Julien just the way most people tackling this subject would. If Bright Days Ahead was willing to consistently veer away from expectations, it would be a tiny wonder. Sadly, that’s not the case.
— Josh Spiegel