Please don't spend money on this.

n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Quite often films like this can be seen as sickly and rather a bit much for those who want a more realistic plot as well. With this you can get that feeling of emotion that can feel a little showy, kind of like "look here we are trying so hard to make you feel all fuzzy", I'm not saying that is all together a bad thing but I do feel movies like that can get a little too seen before sometimes. The movie has a small cast in terms of main characters but that makes it much more personal and at times you can kind of connect to these French townsfolk and the entire goings on that happen. The plot is about a man named Germain who is a little on the less intelligent side but is a sweet man in ways and shows it in this film most whilst feeding his beloved pigeons in the park. Germain comes across an old lady who also feeds the pigeons and strikes up a nice little friendship where both tell each other of their lives and read to each other as well. Of course not all the plot is set in the park and between these two characters, Germain also has to contend with his less than loving mother and friends who often ridicule him for his less than smart remarks. I felt the story does go along nicely, yet again the sickly parts can clog up part of this small and light movie but in the end it isn't long enough to make me care about much of the more cheesy moments.Gerard Depardieu is Germain and he does a good job, he makes him exactly what he is meant to be, not too intelligent but caring, can get a little angry but at the same time wants to learn and better himself too. It is not only Depardieu who is good, Gisele Casadesus as the old lady and the name in the movie Margueritte is in fine form, she is acting here way into her 90's and really gives this her all and creates a likable character and a little lady who maybe could remind many of us of grandmas. I liked most of the cast as well but I also like that the main two are given a lot of time together, the movie never tries to make too much small talk with minor characters and so I felt it flows well for such a short film.Jean Becker directs and does a nice job; I felt he captured the right tone of the town used and gets that French film kind of spirit really going. Becker co-writes as well and the script is really where a lot of the movie can feel overly sweet, the ending leaves a nice taste but boy just before that it made me think it was going to be a horrendous ending and too predictable, would have ruined the movie but luckily the guys behind this get it right. I must also mention the wonderful score which is not used a lot but when it is it's lovely and really brings out the best of the certain scenes involved. With this you can get that kind of award bait movie that really tries to either pull at the heart strings or make you laugh or sometimes both and this movie feels very much like that. I will say though that it is recommendable, it is layered in typical kind of plot but still wraps the whole thing up nicely and adds a nice little bow to this more than OK movie. Don't expect something amazing, this is good but far from sublime, still shows though the genuine skill that French cinema can produce and also that Depardieu is still going strongly as an actor.

one of the simplest movies, I have ever watched with deep meaning. It shows why your life can be meaningful, even though you lose faith on family, even though you hate each moment of it. The above summary i wrote, the first part is from the movie, second part i made it up with my learning from the movie. It shows that learning has no age, one just need a little motivation, a little hope. It also shows the love that often do not come on surface for the people we care the most. Germain thought his mother hated him, but in reality it was opposite. It also taught me sometimes again. Why I say again?? As my college professor used to say,"Most of us know everything, just that we can't remember all the things we see or learn. So, we often require someone to remind us those." the teaching that I got again: True love and lovers will always find a way, to connect, to share and to care.

Depardieu plays with great dignity an almost illiterate guy who meets a ninety year old woman who shows him the marvellous world of (french) literature. As he delves more into the labyrinth of verbs his overall behaviour changes and he starts to see the world with different eyes. The movie gives you an answer, what novels and plays may be good for and how deep that world goes. The cast is great and there's good vibe between Gérard Depardieu and Gisèle Casadeus. The narrative also explains step by step the world and the society of the protagonist, all with a lot or irony and french "humeur". As someone who studied literature I loved the movie for its tenderness, its love for books and the explanations of how novels may work and affect someone. 8/10

Jean Becker is unquestionably a poet of rural France as time after time, film after film, he celebrates the hinterland in much the same way as Marcel Pagnol used to do. Above all - again like Pagnol - his characters have warmth, charm, heart - and those are only the heavies. This time around he has cast Gerard Depardiu as an illeterate oak though lovable with it. Although he has his share of friends in the rural community he is often the butt of their jokes but given the gorgeous much younger girlfriend he has acquired the laugh is surely on them. One day sitting on a park bench feeding pigeons he stumbles on a charming elderly lady whose idea of light reading is Camus' The Plague. They strike up a friendship and are soon meeting daily and Depardieu is absorbing culture by osmosis. That's pretty much it but it is done superbly not least by Giselle Casadesus, who really was born in 1914 or three years before Danielle Darrieux who is also still working. British reviewers seem to think Casadesus is a newcomer yet she has been working for years not least in Becker's Les Enfants du Marais and Valerie Lemercier's Palais Royal. This is a wonderful film that I can't recommend highly enough.