Gérard (Gérard Depardieu) is a middle-aged mechanic in a bit of a crisis – his marriage is plagued by infidelity, and he’s on the verge of being abandoned by his wife (Françoise Lépine), a lascivious woman who openly demonstrates her disdain for her spouse through her intense flirtations with any man who shows her any attention. In an attempt to recapture his joy for life, Gérard ventures into the French countryside, where he is set to buy a garage from a young couple setting off to start their own new life in Asia. He soon meets Barbara (Catherine Deneuve), the eccentric proprietor of a local hotel and restaurant, who instantly takes a liking to the protagonist – insofar as she sees him as another source of endless income, using him to propel herself forward through borrowing her money she clearly has no intention of ever paying back, and putting him to work in her hotel, which forces Gérard to balance his burgeoning new business, as well as his growing friendship with a woman with such an absurd, but oddly innocent, perspective on life, you can’t quite help but adore her. The residents of the town are quirky and very different from the kind of people Gérard normally associated with – their hospitality, not to mention their quaint way of life, seem to initially be attractive to him, but what happens when we start to feel the need to escape once again?

Nobody’s Perfect (French: Bonne Pomme) is an oddity of a film – it’s a piece that naturally shouldn’t have worked, which seemed to be a sentiment many people in its native country shared when it was released two years ago. Going into this film, you never know quite what to expect. Based solely on the concept, and the sheer magnitude of the two stars playing the lead roles, you’d naturally believe this to be something worth seeing, even if for the purpose of diverting from reality for a brief moment. Don’t let the ambivalence surrounding this film distract you – the title of the film is well-chosen, because while it does have many flaws, it accepts them and assimilates its imperfections into an endearing and delightful comedy that may not be particularly serious, but is kept afloat by a pair of astounding actors, a premise that gives them fascinating characters to portray, and a director (Florence Quentin, who rarely gets her due as much as she deserves as a filmmaker) intent on providing an entertaining experience, both for those involved and for the audience, who will undoubtedly be captivated by this charming little film that doesn’t mean all that much, but has a tender heart and a wonderful amount of soulfulness, which is more than enough to qualify it to be a diverting film that seeks to delight rather than provoke.

I do admit that I was more predisposed to enjoying Nobody’s Perfect than most people – the idea of seeing two of the greatest French performers of all time (appearing across from each other in their tenth film together) in a quaint little comedy about two individuals becoming unconventional friends was always going to be something that attracted me to this film, and in all honesty, this is exactly where it delivered. Depardieu and Deneuve show themselves to still have the energy and dynamic charm they have consistently demonstrated since their breakthrough decades ago, and demonstrating remarkable restraint, without ever sacrificing the opportunity to have some fun, the duo are exceptional. Depardieu is an impressive actor when he puts in even a slight bit of effort, and Nobody’s Perfect gives him a chance to make great use of his brutish sensibilities in the careful construction of a more tender character which sees him at his most endearing. Deneuve delivers a performance brimming with camp, playing an eccentric older woman who asserts dominance over the entire village, forcing them into submission due to her unhinged, but undeniably lovable, personality. The two actors are excellent individually, but it’s in their collaboration that the film finds itself soaring. The chemistry between Depardieu and Deneuve is so palpable, built from decades of knowing and understanding each other as professionals, and their roles naturally lend themselves to the actors giving organic performances that allow them to find some common ground, both in terms of the story and the relationship between the characters that the film tries to convey, and upon which it succeeds.

Nobody’s Perfect is a remarkably simple film, which is also why I’m more inclined to forgive some of its more questionable narrative decisions, because there are too many films of this kind that try and shroud their plot shortcomings with convoluted storylines – Quentin keeps everything very simple here, presenting us with a straightforward story of a city-dweller escaping his life and moving to a little village, where the many quirky characters he encounters show him a different side of life – for some, Nobody’s Perfect may be a toothless attempt to satirize the differences between different sides of society, a balancing of the dog-eat-dog world of city life, and the quirky simplicity of living in a small village. Unfortunately, Nobody’s Perfect is not quite smart enough to be meaningful in this regard, which is less of a criticism but a fact that just needs to be understood if one is to enjoy the film. The film’s approach is quite pedestrian, but it goes to any lengths to make itself entertaining, with the rudimentary approach serving this film far better than had the director tried to make a bold and daring film that took aim at the cultural zeitgeist. This film does tend to be somewhat misguided at times, especially in the final act, which was extremely rushed and seemed to be without any coherent direction, but the final product is just entertaining enough to make this all inconsequential. Films like this don’t need to be particularly serious, even if there was a desire to see it venture a bit deeper into the compelling themes that it very briefly touches on.

Nobody’s Perfect is a film that just focuses on one theme: starting over, which is an idea it does manage to explore in some detail, even if it felt like it was chasing the easier laughs throughout. The power of a second chance is the core of the film, and despite the clear flaws in her story, Quentin does manage to craft a compelling little comedy about a group of individuals trying to regain the past and start all over again. This is ultimately not a film that takes itself too seriously, and we shouldn’t either. Nobody’s Perfect is just an entertaining little romp through the French countryside that may not tie everything together in a particularly effective way, but it does manage to be a true delight, a quaint rural comedy that reunited two enormous stars, giving them the chance to play across from each other, and to explore the resonant, if not very common and highly implausible theme of giving life another shot. Nobody’s Perfect is a lot of fun, and it works in sometimes unexpected ways. This film is far better than most give it credit for, and despite some narrative oversights, it is a charming and diverting piece that exists almost solely to entertain, rather than to make any profound statements. It’s an approach that doesn’t always work, but for the sake of something like this, it only made sense.