Hello Goodbye (2008) Reviews

• Made for TV lightweight comedy

  rasecz2010-04-09

  A lightweight comedy whose humor depends largely on the inadequacies of a non-observant French Jewish doctor who emigrates with his converted wife to Israel. The first half is the one that draws the most laughs (mostly just chuckles), while the second half concentrates on developing the story of a husband and wife relationship that is breaking apart. There is a genuinely humorous gag near the beginning but otherwise the farcical elements of the story are only mildly funny. Not surprisingly, a comedy such as this is built on a long string of contrivances that ends up taking a toll on one's patience. One hour into, I could not help but feel a bit exasperated with the story. It's the kind of film that is made for TV audiences.

  More

• Cockamamie, Masha -- but cute and enjoyable

  Bernie1572009-06-20

  A barely religious French Jewish gynecologist is cajoled and convinced by his converted-to-Judaism wife that she really wants to move to Israel to explore their Jewish roots. On a brief exploratory visit, he is promised a job at an Israeli hospital when a current gynecologist moves to the US. Also they buy into an apartment which is under construction but ought to be finished soon. So they break it to his parents and family, pack up their stuff, and move to Israel The doctor who was supposed to move to the US has reasons for delaying, the apartment construction is stalled due to finances, which leads to a lot of problems including that he takes a job washing cars at a hotel. He decides to go back to France but his wife doesn't want to. Eventually, ....

  More

• not so funny movie about a couple in midlife crisis

  sh_bronstein2009-07-21

  "Hello Goodbye" is a movie about a wealthy middle-aged French couple that suddenly experiences a storm of difficulties. Alain Gaash is Jewish and his family is surprised and somewhat taken aback when his son decides to marry a Christian woman in a church. Alain's wife Gisèle had converted to Judaism in order to marry him, but she realizes suddenly that his family still sees her as non-Jewish. Alain's Jewish friends don't see him as Jewish enough because he isn't circumcised, and the couple ends up having a late identity crisis. The main focus of the film though, is not so much on the search of Jewish identity, but on Gisèle's search for meaning: she was a housewife for years, who gave up her career to support her husband and raise their son. Now that the son has left home, her life is empty. She does all sorts of crazy things, like destroying her expensive car, and convincing her husband to move to Israel, where they had no secure income or even a home. Gisèle seeks the "help" of a very suspicious drug-using "Rabbi" and falls for his good looks and "wisdom". Alain suspects that their bad love-life is due to the fact that he is not circumcised, even if they had had problems in this area before their identity crisis, so he gets a circumcision. This of course, changes nothing. In any case, the couple barely has anything to do with each other: Gisèle finds out where Alain is working by chance, Alain finds out by accident that Gisèle didn't tell him their furniture was thrown into the Meditarranean on the way to Israel... At some point, not only do the main characters lose contact with each other, the film loses all contact with it's audience. The ending is so ridiculous and shmalzig it's unbearable. My recommendation: Skip it.

  More

• Great Movie

  safelton_112018-08-20

  I can't understand why this movie is only rated 5.1 here. It's a great movie. I saw it because I am a big fan of Depardieu, and I'm very glad I watched it. He's paired with a top-notch French actress, their third movie together. In the film they have a successful marriage, and on screen they are great together, great chemistry, with all the ups and downs of a marriage that has lasted 25 years. He's a successful, contented gynecologist; she's apparently never worked, "only" raised a son, who's getting married. She wants a life change, that's the major impetus for the movie. As anyone can read in the description, eventually they immigrate to Israel. Of course they are Jewish, and that plays a sizable role in the movie. The script is quite good, quite realistic, though some of what happens from the time they enter Israel to live there seemed a bit overdone. For example, I wonder if Israel really has so many gynecologists, or this was just the writer using artistic license. There are some great actors in this movie in addition to the leads. I like French, so I didn't mind that so many (I assume) French actors were hired for the scenes filmed in Israel. This movie has a lot of "extras," and by extra I mean scenes and short moments where we see actors whom we see only once, and only for a short time. These "vignettes" generally don't add to the story line, they are there for effect - in a movie like this usually for comedic effect. They can add or subtract from the entertainment value of the movie. As well they can give us a break from concentrating on the (main) story. Having said all of this and maybe having rambled a bit, let me say that the "extras" in this movie are great. The many actors all do a very good job, and the movie was more enjoyable to me. Finally, the extra on the dvd is exclusively an interview with the lead actress. I found it very interesting and informative.

  More

• good intentions

  Kirpianuscus2018-05-05

  A nice comedy. not the best, not the most convincing but interesting for the good intention to explore the couple relations, a new life and its premises, clash between civilisations and different sources of humor. the risk to see it only as a film with Fanny Ardant and Gerard Depardieu is not small. but it has the virtue to be part of a long French cinema tradition about meet with different spaces, temptations for a couple, need to save appearences and a trip defining the marriage. so, a nice film. maybe, in part, for the good intentions.

  More