You’re skipping down the cracked cobblestones that line the whimsical pathways of the French countryside under the fluffy clouds and bright sunshine, and while you skip, you may trip and maybe hurt your knee on the pavement, but you remain undaunted and proceed to skip to a nearby ice cream stand to get something to cheer yourself up.

Such is the way that Ensemble, C’est Tout, which literally translates to “Together, That’s All”, plays out. Promoted as Hunting and Gathering in Singapore, it begins with the nostalgic tunes of the piano and the light tinkle of a musical box and a ride over the soothing crests and troughs of the terracotta rooftops that sit in pastoral Paris. So peaceful was the beginning that the transition from clucking hens and mewing cats to the hollow sounds in the black night in the busy city was slightly jarring.

Hard at work in one of the many buildings that dot the city, is Camille (Audrey Tautou), cleaning lady of ToutClean. Vivacious and cheeky (evident during a doctor’s exam) and clearly a brave soul (having left a note chiding an office worker for his less than satisfactory personal hygiene habits), she befriends, in the lobby of her apartment building, a painfully awkward young man who has the airs of an aristocrat who has long left his throne.

Just when you thought that this would be a song and dance about a pretty, little thing who moves to the countryside after finding the love of her life, you’re thrown a curveball by the wily filmmakers. It’s revealed that Camille is actually a starving (literally, since she has an eating disorder) artist battling the acute disappointment radiating from her mother and the loneliness that comes with living in a city where people don’t know your name.

The regal young chap is Philibert Marquet de la Tubelière (Laurent Stocker) and he’s not all that happy either. Impaired by a stutter that never seems to go away, he is forced to harbour his great desire to be a stage actor. Having been mocked during auditions and cruelly denied a glamourous stage career, Philibert is relegated to selling postcards in front of a museum.

As if that isn’t enough, Philibert shares his majestic, easily-10-room-large apartment with a sour, constantly swearing, permanently drunk hippie of a chef who constantly threatens to bring down the ramshackle walls of the ornate apartment with his loud music and frequent romps with decidedly sordid women.

The roommate from hell and chef with a perpetual day-old stubble is Franck (Guillaume Canet), a coarse gentleman but a gentleman who loves his sharp-tongued, apple-cheeked grandma, Paulette (Françoise Bertin) all the same.

The French film, adapted from a novel of the same title written by Anna Gavalda, centres around the 4 distinctly different characters who, while fighting the demons that they’ve been plagued with, find themselves in each other.

Audrey Tautou, Tres Manifique

Bravo to the director, Claude Berri, for casting the quirky, doe-eyed Tautou as the frail yet determined Camille.

Having starred beside the brilliant Tom Hanks in The Da Vinci Code and having held her own in Amélie, it’s obvious that Tautou has an uncanny knack for pulling off characters that have more layers than a filo pastry.

Tautou’s character in Ensemble, C’est Tout is complex and somewhat confusing. 10 minutes into the film, Camille is pained with an eating disorder and a bad case of flu, but she still remains the cheerful and innocent character that we’re introduced to in the beginning, hopping across the street and greeting people and especially her colleagues ever so cheerily.

Camille also makes a remarkably speedy recovery, despite the firmly established seriousness of her illness by the doctor, devouring a hearty meal in a nearby restaurant soon after. Although Tautou seem to have lost some weight for this role, her ailment would have been unnoticeable to the audience if not for the many references made by Philibert to her weight.

That aside, she’s brilliant as a struggling artist (although, through no fault of her own, her Whistler’s Mother-esque sketch of Paulette with 1 breast bared was quite scary) and excellent as a feisty roommate who wouldn’t hesitate to fling your annoying boom box out the window.

Berri’s rightful decision to cast Tautou in the highly challenging role was emphasised by Camille’s defeated slouch that came from wanting to disappear and her stubborn set of lips when one of her many arguments with Franck ensued.

Tautou’s portrayal of Camille is outstanding and her identification for the character leapt off the screen and right into the hearts of the audience.

The Perfect Airs of Laurent Stocker

Stocker as Philibert was utterly amusing to watch. The essence of Philibert’s obsessive and annoying pedantic ways was accurately captured by Stocker. Playing a character with a stutter is not an easy task but Stocker took the role in stride and had you believing that he had indeed lived with a speech impediment all his life.

While Berri was skillful at nudging the audience towards believing that Philibert would be spending the entire film pinning for Camille and that his concern for Camille might even lead to a falling out with Franck, he was rather short when it came to giving the unexpected development between Philibert and Camille more time to flourish.

Even so, Stocker was absolutely memorable especially when he blew up at Franck 30 minutes into the film. With veins popping and his eyes shining with madness, you were sincerely afraid but before you could start to detest Philibert, Stocker finds it in himself to bring out the strand of vulnerability that made Philibert the lovable character that had everyone rooting for him.

Guillaume Canet the Outlaw and on-screen Grandma Françoise Bertin

Canet is no greenhorn to the big screen. His huge resume includes playing across Leonardo DiCaprio in The Beach and Marion Cotillard in Jeux d’enfants (Love Me If You Dare), writing and directing Ne le dis à personne (Do Not Tell Anyone) and producing the French thriller, Mon Idole (My Idol).

In Ensemble, C’est Tout, he’s striking as the bad boy with a soft heart. His shaggy good looks and the careful tenderness with which he executes his role made the potentially unpleasant Franck a rather appealing character.

One cannot help but admire, given the little screen time allotted for this, how he made the seamless transition from hoodlum to romantic and sentimental lover.

And who could neglect his lovely grandmother, the one he faithfully visits every Monday?

Bertin’snaturally demure mien made her perfect for the role and this resonated throughout her appearance in the film. Though much more mature, Bertin is just as feisty as Tautou and never once did she allow her age to stand in the way of delivering a dazzling performance.

C’est Tout, That’s All

Ensemble, C’est Tout is not saccharinely sweet nor is it overtly genteel. It has as many twists as It’s a wonderful Life and the satirical candor of Amélie and there are plenty of moments in which you despair for the lovely characters but just as many sequences in which you are compelled to applaud the fortitude of the individuals.

Witty euphemisms that ring too true, a stellar cast and a great plot with a happy ending that’ll have you smiling for hours after you leave the theatre, c’est tout.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Movie Details:

Rating: NC-16

Opens: Oct 18

Running Time: 97 mins

Language: French with English subtitles

Cast: Audrey Tautou, Guillaume Canet, Laurent Stocker, Françoise Bertin

Director: Claude Berri