Two Is a Family (2016)

Cheap sentimentality like a soap opera. An offense to intelligence. Terrible.

This is the typical well made comedy–drama, where the wise combination of funny and moving elements results in a good product, also thanks to the good acting performances. Omar Sy really feels his character and is certainly the pillar of strength of a sometimes weak screenplay, but still capable of arousing deep emotion. The (usual) bad Italian translation of the original title (Demain tout commence), with the addition of a useless subtitle, does not render the intention of a picture that wants to touch some delicate chords of human sensitivity, in a very simple and natural way, and manages to do that quite effectively.

Given the premise, the story that screams to be told here - a serial womanizer who never took an ounce of responsibility in his life suddenly loses everything and is faced with the challenge of raising a girl, who is a total stranger to him, in a foreign country, with no means at hand - is sadly left untold. Instead, the movie opts for introducing a wealthy, bearded plot device called Bernie, and we skip the first eight years of little Glorias upbringing in a colourful montage. What we get after that is a strange and tiresome cocktail, the base of which consists in a version of the worn-out 'liar revealed'-story, needless and lazily motivated ("I'm only lying because I want to make you happy"). Embedded in this are scenes reminding us of the impossibly ideal, always cheerful friendship between father and daughter, alternating with half-hearted attempts at drama, both elements effectively nullifying each others' effects. The outcome is a confusing movie that doesn't know its own identity. I could have perhaps forgiven it its flaws and watched it as a lighthearted comedy with some family drama components, if all the commotions in the second act would have simply been put to rest in the third, and that would have been the end of it. But, consistent with the movie's main issue, in the very last scene, a formerly entirely irrelevant subplot reemerges to – assisted by a whimsical, reflective montage of our family, once again united, frolicking in the sea and laughing into the camera – scream "tragicomedy" in our faces. One thing to hold in its favour are the performances of the two main actors. Sadly, the development of their characters is utterly neglected, not allowing the actors to really show what they can do.

First let me say this: I am not a fan of Omar Sy, nor his previous work in Intouchable... But I was amazed how realistic he brought his character to live in this movie. Im not an emotional person but towards the end of the movie I really had troubling holding the tears in because of the not logical rules of the court and our society.You really feel connected to a lot of the characters in the movie. There are some cheesy things that keeps coming up and suppose to be funny but after 2-3 times it's not really that funny anymore.Overall it's a great movie and definitely one you can watch with you girl/boyfriend or wife/husband!