"Babysitter" -- Movie Review

 

On the closing weekend of the Tribeca Film Festival, I attended the New York premiere of the French-Canadian comedy, “Babysitter”.

Synopsis

When a man is forced to care for his newborn baby, what impact will it have on his family when he hires a seductive babysitter to assist him?

Story

With his partner Nadine left at home to breastfeed their newborn daughter, Cedric opts for a boys-night-out at a boxing match.  After having had too much to drink, he gets caught on-camera kissing Chantal, a television reporter there to cover the event.  Since his transgression was televised, there was no way Cedric could deny the deed – and to make matters worse, his employer saw it all and decides to suspend him from his engineering job, pending an investigation.  Nadine takes this opportunity to go back to work and leave Cedric to care for the baby – but when she realizes that she has no interest in returning to the office, she instead checks into a motel and indulges in some much-needed self-care. 

Before too long, Cedric comes to the bitter realization that he has very little in the way of paternal instincts.  Each day, he struggles to care for the little one, much to her detriment; clearly, he was not made to be a stay-at-home dad.  Seeking out a babysitter to help him at home, he hires Amy – a sexy 22-year-old with no boyfriend or family; at first, she doesn’t immediately seem much more capable of caring for the baby than he does, but that soon changes when he sees how positively his daughter responds to her.  Getting suspicious about what’s happening at home, Nadine checks-out of her motel and returns to keep an eye on both her daughter and her husband.

With some free time, Cedric decides to write a book about misogyny – and engages his journalist brother Jean-Michel to co-author it with him.  Soon, Jean-Michel moves in with them to work on the book full time.  It becomes rather evident that Amy is behaving in some rather seductive ways with the adults in the house – everyone finds it a major distraction when she decides to show up for work wearing a sexy French maid costume.  Eventually, the book gets published but Cedric is dejected when Jean-Michel gets all of the credit.  With Amy noticing that the romance is deteriorating between Cedric and Nadine, will she be able to do anything to revive their relationship?   

Review

“Babysitter” is an attempt at a crazy, sexy French romantic comedy in the “Me Too” era – unfortunately, it manages to fail on all attempts.  Crazy?  Perhaps.  But sexy?  No.  Comedy?  Absolutely not!  There are obvious stabs at being comedic by exaggerated facial reactions and so forth, but none of them work.  It’s too bad because given the premise, the filmmakers may have missed a bet here – on the other hand, it’s difficult to make fun of the “Me Too” movement without offending people who were adversely affected by it.  The movie also seems to be trying to say that the political correctness of “Me Too” may have gotten out of hand. 

This movie is an adaptation of a stage play by Catherine Léger, who is credited as the screenwriter on “Babysitter”.  Director Monia Chokri (who also appears as Cedric’s partner Nadine) saw the original stage version and decided she had to bring it to the screen.  According to the IMDB notes, Chokri opened it up a bit, changing only a few trivial items.  As Amy, Nadia Tereszkiewicz certainly does seem to have something of a “Lolita-esque” quality about her, being simultaneously alluring and innocent, while maintaining an air of mystery.  Her character compared herself to Bardot – not unfairly or inaccurately.    

The ending is also somewhat problematic – that is to say, problematic in the sense that it is puzzling.  In the last few moments of “Babysitter”, we see a gaggle of nubile young women roller skating throughout the streets of this Montreal neighborhood.  What this is supposed to mean – or allude to – remains something of a mystery.  Are we to understand that Cedric’s next temptation is soon to come?  Does it mean that these seemingly carefree teenage girls will not have to suffer under the yoke of male oppression once they come of age?  Or does it reference something else only the filmmaker understands.  Yes, maybe it’s better to go with that one.