Like a Gallic The Big Chill, WE’LL END UP TOGETHER is about a reunion of a bunch of insufferable bores played out against a nostalgic soundtrack of pop tunes and dance anthems.
A sequel to the fairly forgettable Little White Lies, WE’LL END UP TOGETHER starts off promisingly with a montage of the Cap Ferret area accompanied by Them’s rendition of It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue.
Maudlin middle-aged restaurateur Max has come to spruce up his gorgeous summer house in the chic beach community of Cap Ferret with a view to sell it. It turns out Max is divorcing, his business is in the shit house, and he is suffering severe anxiety attacks, so when old pals Marie, Vincent, Isabelle, now-famous actor Eric and his hapless buddy-turned-assistant Antoine, arrive unannounced to celebrate his Sixtieth birthday it’s absolutely not a welcome surprise.
Vincent has a new male lover in tow, Marie has a kid, and Eric also has an infant accompanied by a no nonsense nanny, a kind of Mary Hellzapoppin. To top it off, Max’s miffed former Mrs. arrives unaware that the place is up for sale and the various kids take a boat out for a sail, two occurrences that loop the mortal coil into a hangman’s noose.
WE’LL END UP TOGETHER plays like being trapped in someone’s mid life crisis and the only respite is from the retinue of songs that sprinkle the soundtrack.
When the plodding pace of the narrative gets too much at least one can close one’s eyes and open one’s ears to a gorgeous playlist: To Love Somebody by Nina Simone, Pennies From Heaven by Louis Prima, Daddy Cool by Boney M, Slave to Love by Bryan Ferry, Not the Girl You Think I Am by Crowded House, I Feel Love by Donna Summer, Girls Just Want To Have Fun by Cyndi Lauper, and Nena’s 99 Luftballons.
Two weeks on Cap Ferret may be an idyllic idea for a vacation but at over two hours WE’LL END UP TOGETHER outstays its welcome by about two hours. Languid gives way to lazy and there’s a whiff of misogyny and homophobia.
And there could be a mass debate about cultural appropriation and diversity too.