Looking at them together, you would hardly guess that these two women were great friends 30 years ago. It was the time of the Big Blue. And the two teenagers of the time never stopped listening to Éric Serra’s soaring musical score over and over, while dreaming of going together to Amorgos, the Greek island where Luc Besson’s famous film was shot. .
But hey, life made sure that trip never happened, that the two girls lost sight of each other after an argument about a guy they probably wouldn’t even recognize anymore. today. They now also find that, ultimately, the Big Blue’s music wasn’t so terrible. Blandine (Olivia Côte) has been particularly depressed since the divorce her husband requested to start a new relationship – classic case – with a younger woman. Magalie (Laure Calamy) walks around with her exaggerated exuberance and excesses of good humor, far too suspicious to be authentic, by making up her galleys. When the son of one, who would like to see his mother finally come out of her torpor, contacts the other so that they can reconnect, the dynamic is established from the outset.
Les Cyclades is a feminine buddy movie. Marc Fitoussi (Copacabana, La ritournelle), who also signs the screenplay, relies on the contrasts between two women whose temperaments are very different, whom he nevertheless immerses in a situation of great proximity. A combination of circumstances, still orchestrated by the son, leads the two old friends to leave together for Greece to finally make the trip they dreamed of 30 years ago. The reserved nature of Blandine is thus quickly placed in front of that, very exhausting, of Magalie, a party girl of first who does not disdain to circumvent the rules to draw everything to her advantage.
The story turns out to be rather predictable and we deplore the too brief presence of really well inspired scenes, like the one where, for example, Magalie imposes disco music in a restaurant and starts dancing. This is when, all of a sudden, adolescence seeps back into the lives of these women. The last act, marked by the arrival of a former hippie (Kristin Scott Thomas), also comes to break the dynamic installed until then.
That said, Laure Calamy, who pulls out all the stops, and Olivia Cote, whose role is less flamboyant but just as well-camped, form a remarkable tandem. The good dose of vitamin D contained in this sunny comedy owes them a lot.
