A multicharacter saga incapable of rising above mere pleasantness, Let it Rain once again finds director/star Agnès Jaoui (Look at Me) teaming with Jean-Pierre Bacri on a dramedy fraught with socio-cultural frictions. Back in her rural hometown to speak at a political rally, domineering feminist author Agathe (Jaoui) reunites with unhappy sister Florence (Pascale Arbillot) while agreeing to be the subject of a documentary being made by Michel (Bacri) and Karim (Jamel Debbouze), the latter an editor and the son of Agathe’s family’s housekeeper. This gathering brings to the fore a host of romantic, racial, gender and class tensions, all of which are discussed with an expository bluntness at odds with Jaoui’s light, nimble direction. More problematic, however, is that the gripes, plights and hang-ups of these semi-comedic people – all of whom are neither serious enough to be affecting, nor goofy enough to be hilarious – are simply too mundane, and too dramatically inert, to forcefully resonate.
Comments