Let It Rain (Parlez-moi de la pluie)

Review

Once in a while a comedy comes along in which you’re not sure, for a long time, that it actually is a comedy. But then the details begin to accumulate, the characters take hold, you lock into the director’s rhythms, and, voilà, you surprise yourself by how hard you’re laughing. That’s what happens in Agnès Jaoui’s Let It Rain, the story of a hotel clerk (brilliant little Jamel Debbouze) and an insecure blowhard failed reporter (Jaoui’s co-writer, Jean-Pierre Bacri) who team up to make a documentary about a �strong woman� politician, played by Jaoui, who has alienated almost everyone in her life with her ambition�especially her redheaded sister (Pascale Arbillot), who’s embroiled in an affair with the dimwit journalist. It takes a half-hour to sort these and other characters out before their various agendas begin to collide, the rain comes, and you see the tragedy of everyone’s lives�until, this being a comedy, the sun comes back out and the sadness ebbs. This wistful little film is at just the right temperature. — David Edelstein

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New York Magazine Reviews

• David Edelstein's Full Review (6/14/10)