Take a detour for ‘French Exit’
A fantastic Michelle Pfeiffer makes dramedy worth seeing
When you’ve got a film titled “Momma’s Man” in your resume, you don’t make the mother-son comedy-drama “French Exit” without raising concerns of a Freudian nature by revisiting the subject. But New York City-born Azazel Jacobs, who is known for appearing in his own films and casting his parents (his father, Ken Jacobs, is an experimental filmmaker) in them, isn’t shy about his obsessions, and we can be thankful he isn’t. “French Exit,” a dark comedy in which an arrogant and domineering rich woman, who “never worked a day in her life,” runs out of money, gives Michelle Pfeiffer the best role she has had in many years.
Frances (Pfeiffer) and her son Malcolm Price (Lucas Hedges, “Manchester By the Sea”) are about to be evicted from their massive, hardwood-paneled Manhattan townhouse. Frances is selling the furnishings, artwork and her jewelry to bankroll whatever life she has left. She expresses a desire to commit suicide “when the money runs out.” For his part, Malcolm is engaged to Susan (Imogen Poots), but is afraid to tell his mother. Frances found her husband dead in his bed with a small black cat on his chest and left for a vacation in Vail anyway some time earlier.
On a more recent evening, Malcolm finds Frances sharpening a carving knife in the dark. “I like the sound it makes,” she explains. When rich friend Joan (Susan Coyne) offers Frances her lavish, unused Paris apartment for her and Malcolm to live in, Frances, who speaks the lingo, agrees. She and Malcolm board a cruise ship for France, cat included because Frances believes her husband now inhabits its body. During the crossing, Malcolm has a fling with crew member Madeleine (Danielle Macdonald), who works as a psychic on the ship and who immediately recognizes the cat for what it is. The ship’s tipsy doctor (a terrific Vlasta Vrana) tells Malcolm he averages two dead bodies a day on a crossing.
In Paris, Frances and Malcolm live the vinous life they always lived, except in this case, we see Frances’ big pile of Euros shrinking as they continue their profligate behavior. They meet a lonely, eccentric American widow named Mme. Reynard (a delightful Valerie Mahaffey), who befriends Frances, which is sort of like hypnotizing a cobra. The cat runs away. Frances hires a Paris detective (Isaach de Bankole) to find it. Madeleine runs a séance in which the cat speaks in the voice of Tracy Letts, who was the leading man in Jacob’s 2017 divorced-couple romance “The Lovers.”
“French Exit” will remind many of Wes Anderson’s J.D. Salinger-infused “The Royal Tennenbaums.” The “French Exit” screenplay is by Patrick DeWitt (Jacob’s “Terri”), adapting his own novel. The film, which reminded me of the 1958 New York City-set cult classic “Bell Book and Candle,” offers a tour de force turn to Pfeiffer, who does not disappoint. Her Frances is a lovely, unholy terror, who in one scene sets fire to a table’s flower arrangement when a French waiter treats her and Malcolm rudely.
Eventually, Susan arrives in Paris with her angry boyfriend (Daniel di Tomasso). Joan also arrives. For reasons not made clear, everyone moves into the Paris flat. The cat — aka father — refuses to come “home.” In a completely wrong-headed scene, Frances gives a large pile of cash to a homeless man in a park. Malcolm’s aimless obedience becomes annoying. Robert Higden is excellent as Frances’ befuddled financial adviser.
With her mask-like expression and dyed copper locks, Frances is Death and the Maiden all rolled into one. You won’t forget her, or Pfeiffer.