Anybody who’s thinking of having children or planning to send the ones they have to sleep-away camp may reconsider after seeing “Those Happy Days,” a pungently written and keenly cast ode to the joys and perils of putting young adults in charge of children. Versatile Jean-Paul Rouve gives another spot-on perf as Vincent, the director of a three-week residential summer camp whose attendees range from happy to monumentally unhappy campers. Amusing and touching at satisfying intervals, modest but solid pic boasts believable archetypes, funny situations and a surprise punchline.
After “Just Friends,” co-scripters and helmers Eric Toledano and Olivier Nakache continue to demonstrate a knack for eliciting fine perfs in the service of bittersweet comic material. Although minor, pic is evocative and anchored in universal human sentiments.
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In July of 1992, Vincent’s staff of six counselors meets on the Paris train platform where anxious parents hand over their precious darlings, ages 7 to 13. The young charges include an imperious Belgian tween who speaks like royalty, a famous pediatrician’s son whose hyperactivity medication has to be administered just so or else, and a nerd prematurely obsessed with death.
Loco sextet exercising in loco parentis consists of Caroline (Josephine de Meaux), an uptight Catholic girl with a latent swearing problem; Daniel (Lannick Gautry), a handsome self-satisfied stud; Joseph (Omar Sy), a lanky and jovial black guy taken with the zaftig camp nurse, Nadine (Marilou Berry); Truman (Guillaume Cyr), a lumpy outgoing French-Canadian, and Lisa (Julie Fournier), an attractive urban damsel who thinks she’s the one on vacation.
Activities range from trying to digest the food to a rainy weather visit to the museum immortalizing the regional bedroom slipper industry. Staff meetings are a hoot as is the surprise visit of a team of no-nonsense inspectors investigating credentials, hygiene and educational standards. Ironically, laxity and hypocrisy save the day.
Accelerated romances flourish and sputter in both age groups. Moppets are outstanding. Rhythm never flags.
