Depardieu shines in one of his most uninhibited roles for years in one of the year's funniest, most surprising and moving comedies. It's charmingly melancholic says David Parkinson.
Belgians Benoît Delépine and Gustave Kervern established their reputation as iconoclasts with Aaltra (2004) and Louise-Michel (2008), but they are in much gentler mood in this engaging road movie. Slipping effortlessly between the social realist, the surreal and the supernatural, this is hardly a conventional insight into the plight of the casual worker. But, with a hulking Gérard Depardieu in wistful form, it is often as poignant as it's droll.
Having discovered that he is not entitled to a pension unless he can present pay slips from his previous employers, Depardieu's slaughterhouse worker is dispatched by wife Yolande Moreau on a cross-country quest aboard his 1973 Münch Mammut motorbike. But, as he revisits his old haunts, Depardieu discovers that many of his former employers have gone out of business, while few of those still trading have bothered to keep meticulous records.
Alternately frustrated and reflective, Depardieu gradually comes to realise that he is a man out of his time. He fails to cope with the intercom system at the converted mill where he once toiled and is dismayed to discover a former boss is languishing in a care home with dementia. Moreover, he is duped by conwoman Anna Mouglalis and made to feel guilty by the ghost of old flame Isabelle Adjani, who perished in a car crash when they were courting.
Some may bridle at the quirky conclusion. But fans of Anthony Pelissier's 1949 adaptation of HG Wells's The History of Mr Polly will appreciate the peace that Depardieu finds after an encounter with his outsider artist niece, Miss Ming. They will also enjoy the affectionate anarchy as the story's initial mix of sour satire and muscularly amusing physical and verbal comedy gives way to a moving meditation on the speed with which people and places change (and not always for the better). It's also fascinating to watch the sixtysomething Depardieu dealing with the realisation that retirement is a full-time job, especially as his straggly mane gives him an almost parodic look of Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler (2008). Maybe not a classic, but highly entertaining and charmingly melancholic.
One of the year's funniest, most surprising and ultimately poignant comedies, Mammuth sees Gérard Depardieu shine in one of his most uninhibited roles for years, for which he was nominated for a César Award.
Serge (Depardieu), a slaughterhouse worker, has finally reached retirement age after working without a break since he was 16 years-old. But how will he fill his days after a lifetime of work? He has no hobbies and is not particularly close to his wife Catherine (Yolande Moreau), who still works in a supermarket. When it emerges that Serge will not be automatically entitled to his retirement benefits owing to an administrative error by his former employers, he sets out across the country on his old Munch 'Mammut' bike in search of the missing paperwork - and finds himself coming face-to-face with unexpected elements of his past and present.
