“The Godmother” (M) ***

DESPITE some minor shortcomings, this is a fun movie.

Poorly-paid Arabic-linguist Patience (Isabelle Huppert) works for boss Philippe (Hippolyte Girardot) interpreting wire-tap conversations for the Paris police. 

She has a daughter at university. Her mother (Liliane Rovère) is in an expensive aged-care home that Patience really can’t afford but the staff, particularly Kadidja (Farida Ouchani), look after her well.

When Patience hears a phone conversation about a delivery of Moroccan hash involving Kadidja’s son, she feels that she has to tell her so that she can warn him. This leads Patience to become Arab-speaking Madame Ben Barka. She’s a lot smarter than clueless street-dealers Chocapic (Mourad Boudaoud) and Scotch (Rachid Guellaz), the crims who want their hash back or the cops who are starting to realise that Madame Weed is playing a new game in town. 

Hannelore Cayre, a lawyer in the French criminal justice system, adapted her own novel for director Jean-Paul Salomé. We may, if we think it necessary, assume that up to a point the film draws on real life.

Patience isn’t greedy. She’s merely confronting a collection of vicissitudes that exceed her income. What’s a girl to do? The screenplay also has a dig at how French cops treat other ethnic and immigrant groups.

The film’s purpose is less to offer social commentary than to deliver heist-movie hi-jinks, black comedy and pathos, with a feminist twist. Isabelle Huppert plays Patience with a light-hearted flair. One of France’s most prolific actresses, her filmography lists 148 roles since her 1971 debut at age 18. 

At Dendy and Palace Electric

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