Budapest ★★½
ABOUT an hour into French comedy Budapest the joke wears thin.
The last act is a struggle because there just hasn’t been ‘enough’ – enough laughs, enough raunch,’ enough story, enough character development.
It’s one of those films that falls through the cracks. Despite the advertising suggesting a Hangover-style raunchy comedy it’s too restrained for a film about creating the ultimate buck’s party.
You could argue the film is meant to be more about characters finding themselves; but if that’s the case then the balance is all wrong.
While some of the supporting characters are fun in a deliberately off-beat way, the two main protagonists , Vincent and Arnaud, aren’t that funny or interesting.
The film is directed by Xavier Gens whose previous efforts have mainly been serious horror films. This is in fact his first comedy. It’s also actor Manu Payet’s first screenplay and co-written by Simon Montairou who is best known for the 2010 thriller The Assault.
There’s a pattern here involving creatives who don’t usually work behind the scenes in comedy and I think it translates to the end result on screen.
Payet plays Vincent and Jonathan Coen is Arnaud, two married mid-level executives yearning for something else but not sure what or how to summon the courage to change.
On a stop-over in Budapest they discover how wild and cheap the nightlife can be. Back home in Paris this creates an idea in Arnaud who does the sums and eventually convinces Vincent to help fund and run a business organising fly-in/out buck’s parties.
Their first booking doesn’t go well when the boisterous bunch end up crashing a bus in a river, all captured on iphones of course. But far from dashing their dream, the resulting publicity leads to a flood of enquiries.
There are lots of ups and down to follow, including problems with their wives who weren’t aware of the business venture at first and think their husbands may be ‘sampling the merchandise’.
Unfortunately the majority of the story threads aren’t particularly funny and don’t have satisfying resolutions.
Best of the characters is Georgio, played by TV comedian Monsieur Poulpe, who is the partners’ Hungarian contact , a drug-fuelled, would-be impressario who can arrange a wide selection of activities from visits to strip joints to driving tanks. He can even arrange a real man-hunt using a local simpleton who won’t be missed, if you’re interested.
That’s funny right? But a lot more of Georgio and his strange ideas and buddies was required rather than the forlorn attempts at relationship issues that hijack most of the third act.