Jones: I enjoyed Guillaume Canet’s new film very much. It seeks to emulate, and perhaps gently send up, The Big Chill and other similar works where a group of close friends get together and shoot the breeze, mostly about eachother. This group is summering (and simmering) in a seaside villa near Arcachon while one of their number is lying mortally sick in Paris after a horrific accident – not one of the crew seems willing to give up the holiday to stay with his/her great friend and, as in all close-knit groups, there are tensions. Some of the situations seem a little forced, especially the passion one of the male protagonists suddenly professes to feel for his male friend of fifteen years standing, despite the fact that they both have wives and children. The  gay aspect is well-handled and it gives rise to some funny lines and business, but it doesn’t ring quite true. The funeral at the end is somewhat mawkish and bathetic but intentionally so, I think. The ensemble cast is spot-on, Francois Cluzet standing out as the neurotic and controlling host at the villa, and Marion Cotillard touching as a woman incapable of commitment. Glib and glossy, then, and without quite the depth of the films it’s trying to copy/send up, but still a really enjoyable, though long at 154 minutes, evening at the cinema with a great classic rock soundtrack.

Smith:  I can’t say it better than that.  Well done Jones.