The grinding noises you hear are the gears of this labored French comedy straining to keep a ridiculously convoluted narrative moving along.
Comment
02/25/09
Merci Docteur Rey! (2002)
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Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:21
Fresh:0
Rotten:21
Average Rating:3/10
Consensus: This overly wacky farce strains for sophistication but lacks polish and a coherent narrative.
Synopsis: Thomas Beaumont is a 23-year-old man who agrees to an unconventional threesome, accepting money to spy on an erotic encounter which turns violent. Now a witness to murder, Thomas encounters further... [More]
Starring: Dianne Wiest, Vanessa Redgrave, Jane Birkin, Jerry Hall
Director: Andrew Litvack
Reviews for Merci Docteur Rey!
A limp, smirky lark.
02/09/06
The movie, written and directed by Andrew Litvack, a protégé of Ismail Merchant and James Ivory, strains to be the ne plus ultra of arch, hyper-sophisticated fun, but the laughs are few.
01/15/05
Top CriticAn arch, clumsy effort...not only poorly written but ineptly staged... Mercy!
10/25/04
Merci Docteur Rey, which occasionally works as a passable farce, stoops to the sight gag of vomit.
10/14/04
Merci for nothing, Docteur Rey.
10/08/04
While the cast of Merci Docteur Rey gives it a good shot, this romp stumbles a bit.
10/07/04
It's as if Litvack tossed all these bad gags, multiple storylines and kooky characters into a blender and hit puree.
10/01/04
What is all too apparent on the screen is a general pointless ineptitude, particularly dire in circumstances which require both material and handling to be done with the most effervescent of skill.
09/25/04
Brainless and pointless.
09/20/04
Tries too hard to be madcap.
09/17/04
In this comedy of murder, there is exactly one laugh, involving a dress and wallpaper, which is one more than there is of a real human moment or emotion.
09/17/04
There's much ado about very little in this flimsy, fallible Gallic comedy/melodrama which confounds with its complex, voyeuristic incongruity.
09/17/04
This is less a coming-out tale than a showcase for late-middle- aged hysterical divas in flowing caftans to yell, scream and ride roughshod over the young homosexuals who are nominally the movie's center.
09/15/04
With Yank Andrew Litvack pinch-hitting for producers Ismail Merchant and James Ivory, Merci is free of much of that M-I pomposity, replacing it with an unnerving drollness.
09/14/04
It comes off as forced wackiness of the worst kind, at once cloddish and faux-sophisticated.
09/10/04
Top CriticLacks the sophistication it needs to be truly effective, hopelessly lost in its unfunny gags and weak plotting.
09/02/04
Click to read the article
08/29/04
Ghastly.
08/27/04
A horribly mannered, self-conscious film that gets more tiresome as it goes along.
08/10/04
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