Whether you find it under its original title, Completement Crame! under which it first appeared as a best selling book in 2012, or Well Done! which is the title listed on iMBD and used for its Canadian release, or for its long-delayed U.S. release under the name Mr. Blake At Your Service!, this charming, heartwarming, old fashioned, French language comedy is worth checking out. I just discovered it as it opened in Los Angeles last week and is now traveling America in limited release through new distributor Sunrise Films (Universal Pictures handled international beginning with its release in France in November 2023).
It actually first premiered at the Newport Beach Film Festival in 2023 so its theatrical run in America now is full circle. Led by a rare French-language performance by John Malkovich who here is being anything but John Malkovich, and the luminous Fanny Ardant in one of her most delicious film turns, Mr. Blake At Your Service! finds successful British businessman Andrew Blake at a crossroads in his life. Although as the film starts he is about to be honored as Man Of The Year at an awards ceremony, he instead has gone AWOL and traveled to a vast remote French estate where he first met his wife 40 years earlier and is returning for solace four months after her death. They had both planned on revisting the place of their meeting, but now it is just Mr. Blake alone who knocks on the door but is immediately mistaken by the cook and no nonsense manager of the depleted staff Odile (Emilie Dequenne) as applying for the job of butler that she had advertised in the local paper.
It turns out the place had gone into disrepair and financial troubles after the death four years earlier of Madame Nathalie Beauvillier’s (Ardant) husband. She has never gotten over her grief and, feeling she has no other choice, is mulling a sale. Odile believes she can save it by convincing Madame to once again rent out guest rooms but that would require hiring more help, thus the need for a butler which Blake decides is the only way he would be able to stay at the mansion as he did so long ago. The problem is he has little experience as household help, but he dives in anyway and soon discovers a group of people, each with problems and foibles of their own, who just might need the kind of empathetic help he can provide.
At first tasked with menial chores such as filling out the many jackpot lottery mailings Madame Beauvillier hopes will result in instant riches, as well as ironing the newspaper so it doesn’t rub off in her hands, Blake is in over his head but also is a good sounding board for the occupants including Odile, a taskmaster who has thrown herself completely into serving the needs of the estate; handyman Philippe (Philippe Bas) who is quirky with a capital Q, making little homes for hedgehogs in his spare time, and beyond awkward socially even as he privately fancies Odile; and finally the maid, Manon who unbeknownst to everyone else is pregnant with a baby by a guy who ditched her. When her mother found out she kicked her out and now Manon secretly sleeps in the barn of the estate.
Mr. Blake sets about offering each of them, including Madame Beauvillier, a new perspective on living even as he needs a bit of renewal himself. What it all results in is a lovely kind of feel-good story about a group of people with a need for human contact and community. And that, as it turns out, even goes for the resident cat, Mephisto, who gets just as much screen time as the rest of the them and carries his own little secret.
Based on his 2012 novel, author and film industry veteran Gilles Legardnier has also adapted it (with Christel Henon who also plays the unlikeable Madame Berliner) and is directing for the first time. He has created in this little corner of the world, a heartfelt and delightful film populated with a superb cast of actors beginning with perhaps the most unexpected performance of Malkovich’s career. Demonstrating a talent for working in fluent french peppered with a british accent, the actor delivers one of his most indelible acting turns as the sly, wry, and wise business mogul-turned- butler who finds new purpose in life working on the other side of the fence. After seeing Jodie Foster similarly showing off a completely fluent french language performance in Vie Privee which just premiered in Cannes, it looks like American actors are finding new employment opportunities well outside of Hollywood, and it is a refreshing change for both.
Ardant once again shows why she is one of France’s finest with a warm, poignant and memorable portrayal of a widow trying to hang on to her own dignity as everything seems to be falling apart. Dequenne , Bas, and Anselin are all perfectly cast here with each getting key moments to shine. And as for that cat, Mephisto, he is played by Novehka as a kind of a single greek chorus just watching amusingly as all these events unfold in front of his prying eyes. Cats are notoriously difficult to train but this particular four-legged actor is award-worthy.
Legardinier in his directorial debut finds just the right balance between the comedy and the pathos. Some situations border on slapstick such as a midnight robbery Blake and Philippe undertake to retrieve a cherished wedding ring Madame Beauvillier was forced to sell for the money. That this french souffle doesn’t completely crumble at that point is a tribute to Legardinier’s skill in juggling the tonal shifts without losing control of the bigger picture.
It is a difficult time for this type of independent arthouse movie to find distribution and audiences in America where French imports like this one once thrived, but Mr. Blake At Your Service! is a small gem to savor. You will enjoy the pleasure of his company.
Title: Mr. Blake At Your Service!
Distributor: Sunrise Films – Vertigo Releasing – Universal
Director: Gilles Legardinier
Screenplay: Gillies Legardinier and Christel Henon
Cast: John Malkovich, Fanny Ardant, Emilie Dequenne, Philippe Bas, Eugenie Anselin, Christel Henon, Al Ginter, Anne Brionne, Novehka
Running Time: 1 hour and 50 minutes
