‘Just an Illusion’ Review: A Sweet, Mixtape-Soaked Memory Of Growing Up In Mid-Eighties Suburban Paris
In 1985 suburban Paris, Vincent is nominally preparing for his bar mitzvah but is busier with a first crush, a bedroom shared with his older brother and parents who won’t stop fighting.
A period piece about lost innocence, first rebellions and first loves, Just an Illusion is a coming-of-age comedy in the most familiar sense of the term, and a thoroughly charming one. It comes from the duo of Olivier Nakache and Éric Toledano, the filmmakers behind some of French cinema’s biggest recent hits, including Intouchables, which has been remade more times than anyone can count. The commercial ambition is the same, but the tone here is more nostalgic, with a light, youthful spirit that suits the era. The film drops viewers squarely into 1985 and into the misadventures of Vincent, a Jewish boy about to turn 13 who is supposed to be getting ready for his bar mitzvah.
But Vincent (Simon Boublil) doesn’t seem especially worried about it. The rabbi drops by the house now and then for a lesson, and that’s about it. Their real bond comes from something else entirely, a misunderstanding that lands the boy in serious trouble and drags the rabbi in against his will. What really bothers Vincent is having to share a room with his brother Arnaud (Alexis Rosenstiehl), a 17-year-old who plays The Cure and Joy Division all day long. The two fight constantly, half in jest and half in earnest, and the younger one wants a room of his own, posters included. But the family’s house in the Paris suburbs is small, and nobody is in a position to be picky.
Over the film’s nearly two-hour running time, Vincent will face one demanding circumstance after another. His parents, Yves (Louis Garrel) and Sandrine (Camille Cottin), are both having trouble at work and can’t stop arguing. He has been fired and hides it from everyone for a while. She wants a senior position but first has to pass an exam. Arnaud is looking to make a little money recording and selling pirated cassettes, while Vincent and his friends are mostly concerned with figuring out how to rent an erotic movie at the video store.
All of that recedes once Vincent meets Anne-Karine (Jeanne Lamartine), a neighbor he’s been paired with for a school project. At first she barely notices him, since girls that age tend to go for older boys, but little by little Vincent wins her over with a few white lies and a great sense of humor. Both sets of parents, hers especially, don’t quite know how to handle the budding romance.
Just an Illusion is a nostalgic portrait of a 1980s family and of adolescence (and pre-adolescence) as it was then, a time that was in some ways more innocent than ours, with family codes quite different from today’s. The retro atmosphere comes from the soundtrack, heavy on the commercial pop of the day, including the song that gives the film its title, by Imagination, along with Toto, Simply Red, Earth, Wind & Fire, The Alan Parsons Project and the aforementioned Cure and Joy Division, among others. The costumes and production design do their part, too, putting the viewer in the spirit of those years, which feel both distant and close at once. It was, thankfully, an era without cellphones and (almost) without computers.
The pleasure of the film comes from its light, funny scenes (the ever-amusing Pierre Lottin shines as the building’s eccentric superintendent), its liberating dance numbers, its period-appropriate romantic tangles, and standout work from Garrel and Cottin as a couple who seem to loathe each other but plainly adore each other. It’s enjoyable from start to finish. With no ambition beyond transporting the audience back to those days, and doing so with affection, warmth and a big heart, this delightful French comedy is, as critics of the time might have put it, “a breath of fresh air.” Or “a gentle caress for the spirit.”
