Adventures of Félix (2001)

From my favorite movies..

What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

I wonder why many people like this movie so much. Why was it interesting? I have no idea. I think I have a problem with French made movies; perhaps because of how they are directed, but I think it's just the screen writing. They always fail to develop any interest for me. I've only tried 2 or 3 mainstream films, and now only two gay-themed films, and it was with great surprise that I truly enjoyed "Just a Question of Love." On several technical levels, "Felix" was quite good; I gave it a "2" because as I sat there watching, I kept asking myself, "Why am I wasting me time doing this?" In the end, all that really matters is whether I enjoy watching the movie. And in this case, I didn't.It's not that I go mainly for all-action, adventure flicks --- it's exactly the opposite: I rarely watch them. I get the point of the film, but it was not -- for me, at least -- presented in a way that I found the slightest bit entertaining. In fact, the story itself seemed hardly worth telling. I fast-forwarded through most of the movie after the "My Brother" sequence, stopping for a glance now and then. Nothing. Maybe I missed the good stuff.

With "western" by Manuel Poirier, "drôle de Félix" ranks among the few French road-movies that can equal American road-movies. This is the story of a young man, Félix. He's a middle manager in a firm, lives in Dieppe and he's HIV positive because he's a gay person. One day, he decides to make his way to Marseille in the south of France in order to meet his father and he doesn't know him. A long route full of pitfalls is waiting for him but it will be the occasion for him to meet several people. He'll become so attached to them that he'll even consider them as members of his imaginary family!I think that these different meetings are of varying quality but the film-makers wrote a clever screenplay that avoids the stereotypes linked to Félix' disease. Félix is gay and HIV positive but no-one is aware of it (except, of course, his lover at the beginning of the movie). During the trip, he's doing his best to hide his disease.The movie especially enjoys an outstanding performance, of course Sami Bouajila but also the actors who constitute his "family". Moreover, the rhythm is well sustained. At the end of the movie there remains a doubt: this man who's fishing on the docks of Marseille, is he Félix' real father or an unknown person? You can think what you want...A slight, nice movie and a new lease of life for the road-movie.

This is a charming film, very believable, just the way it could happen. Felix may be HIV+, but that is not exactly the issue here (he practices very safe sex). It's just a young man's odessy to find his biological father. Don't worry, it's a five-day trip. And, he interacts with some very interesting people. Very French. Very European in its conceit. I am 59 and if I were twenty-something again, I might try, like Felix, to find my biological father in much the same way. I would hope I could meet a "grand-mere" as delightful as Felix did. Felix is HIV+, but that is not the issue here -- it's more about a gay youngman's five-day odyssey. In the end, well, you will have enjoyed it all, but perhaps you won't know exactly why.

FUNNY FELIX (as the film is called English) should really be "Fun" Felix, not "Comical." The film depicts the travels of a young French guy, ethnically half Moroccan. Felix, after losing his job in Normandy, starts a journey to Marseilles, in the other extreme of France in search of his father, whom he has never met. Along the way, using the back roads, Felix meets a bunch of characters, all of whom are presented as surrogate relatives. He also encounters rampant racism, homophobia, and other obstacles. Nonetheless, Felix manages to enrich the lives of all those he meets, even as he often takes the law and morality into his own hands. He has a gift of simplicity, overcoming adversity, and befriending others which are amazing, and are very well brought to the screen, without fake sentiment or sugary, melodramatic, or moralizing tones. As a movie critic said (loosely): "We would all love to meet a 'Felix' traveling through our lives."