“Originally published at intheseats.ca” 

What can be better than having harmony, love and peace in a big family? You may give a positive answer to this question, but I would strongly recommend that you wait an hour and half and see Serial (Bad) Weddings (“Qu’est-ce qu’on a fait au Bon Dieu?”), from French filmmaker Philippe de Chauveron. Because, only after seeing this ridiculously funny, absurdly ironic film about immigrants who are about invade this French family. will you truly understand.

What would happen if one man`s daughter gets married to someone who belongs to different origin and a different religion? And, what if his other two daughters follow in her footsteps? You may call it chaos? However, I think, that would be a very nice way to describe the real reaction of the parents  who are one by one giving their daughters to Jewish, Muslim, and Chinese men.  Even though they find strength to welcome a new family members and recover from the shock, the biggest surprise is yet to come, when The Verneuil family have no idea how to rationally deal with the choice of their youngest daughter, who decides to get married to a young African man…

It is very interesting such a brilliant  idea, which will eventually becomes a little masterpiece, called Serial (Bad Weddings) can come out of a country like France. It begins with Claude (Christian Clavier) and Marie Verneuil (Chantal Lauby) who are in a church attending the wedding of their eldest daughter. At first, we see them happy, seeing how their child is about to build her own family. However, this happiness slowly disappears from their faces when they are standing in the same place one year later, watching their second daughter`s wedding, and she is marrying a Muslim. The third time, we find them at the wedding of their third daughter, and they no longer look happy. And, this is just the beginning of the craziness for the Verneuils; now the parents are questioning themselves,- what have they done to deserve to witness the end of their old and beloved French traditions…

Watching the way how three different men, from different origins and religions fight with each other is extremely entertaining, especially when they exchange biting comments – which I must say is hysterical. Philippe de Chauveron`s film is very unique in its own way as it brings up a societal issue that surrounds Europe. Despite the sensitive subject matter, such as racism and religion, de Chauveron manages to combine these with a certain amount of humor – which is non-stop. It is so unbelievably amusing to see how the entire family deals with each other, despite their real feelings, feelings that they must lock somewhere deep inside, despite this changing over time when a new target for their hate appears, when their youngest daughter introduces a catholic man to their family, who has African roots.

Serial (Bad) Weddings is one of those comedies that doesn’t give you a break from the laughter. This film has no downside, only an upside, which makes the audience fall in love with the characters, and allows us to overlook those moments that are a little more biting and sensitive then they should  be, so we can enjoy it from the beginning to end. It is also hard to pick an actor that stands apart from the others. I must add here that only because of the hysterical facial expressions and the lines delivered by Christian Clavier and Chantal Lauby, does de Chauveron`s film deserve to be watched as many times as you wish.

If there is any film I would highly recommend for you to see, it is Serial (Bad) Weddings,which will more then likely be in my top ten for 2015 films, and should not be missed.  It seems that all the good writers have moved to Europe, or were born there, because the humor, and the way this film appears, is without question, a masterpiece in its own right. It has a cast that delivers brilliant performances, a well written script, and directing which is the main key to lead the story in the right direction. And believe me, it goes exactly where you’d expect it to.