IRIS AND THE MEN

TWO AND A HALF STARS Iris decides to take her sex life into her own hands and joins a dating app. Her husband doesn't know.

COMEDY FRANCE French #IRISANDTHEMEN

Starring Laure Calamy, Vincent Elbaz

There’s a general understanding that Laure Calamy is always the best thing about her films, whether that’s the sensational FULL TIME or the more middling TWO TICKETS TO GREECE. So it is with IRIS AND THE MEN which lands much closer to the bottom than the top of any successful exploration of female sexual autonomy. At least there’s Calamy.

Writer/director Caroline Vignal (ANTOINETTE IN THE CEVENNES), also starring Calamy) aims to lift a lid on what women want when it comes to sex. It’s something Iris hasn’t had in over four years. She’s got everything else - a successful business, beautiful apartment, smart kids, good friends, a loving marriage - the only thing missing is a sex life. When they go to bed at night he taps on his laptop, she reads books about women’s desires. Then she’s introduced to dating apps and everything changes.

And so we’re taken along for the ride as Iris, known online as Isis, meets men: older, younger, desperate, confident, mostly considerate and never dangerous. She’s not after friendship, certainly not a relationship, just sex and somewhere in the middle of all this we get a breakout musical number - It’s Raining Men with adjusted lyrics sung in a suburban square. It’s all very contemporary and would be a lot more interesting if Vignal was willing to take more risk.

At one point Iris hooks up with a date who leads her, fleetingly, into BDSM. It’s not for her, fair enough, and it’s not for him if it’s not consensual. They part amicably. It’s a scene that underscores much of Vignal’s approach to her subject; edging up to something interesting then quickly retreating to the safety of the known. There’s nothing dishonest here, but it doesn’t make for especially dramatic story-telling, and having a bet both ways sucks nearly all the tension and comedy out of the film. 

It also leaves us confused about the film’s intent. The final scene in which two phones are receiving a string of app-messages suggests a number of things, but by now the story has become so risk averse that it could mean anything. Who knows? Sadly, I’m not sure we care either. That’s not to say that IRIS AND THE MEN doesn’t have its moments, it does and Calamy is, as always, compelling. A scene in which she shoos away a desperately needy stalker is well handled and speaks to what the film could have been. 

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