Pack Your Knives and Go
Topshot Films – Les Films du Worso – Pathé Films – France 3 Cinéma
MOVIE REVIEW
Leave One Day (2025)
Opening the 78th Cannes Film Festival, Amélie Bonnin’s out-of-competition debut feature “Leave One Day,” based on her 2021 César-winning short, is a whimsical musical about a chef at the crossroads of her career and personal life.
The film commences as Cécile (Juliette Armanet) hides in a walk-in pantry reading instructions on a pregnancy test. Much to her dismay, it’s positive. But she carries on as if nothing's happening, since the grand opening of her restaurant is a mere two weeks away. Just as she brainstorms for an Instagrammable signature dish, she receives an inopportune call from her mother, Fanfan (Dominique Blanc), with the news that her father, Gérard (François Rollin), has suffered a third heart attack.
Though Cécile is initially determined to stay in Paris to see the opening through, her business – and, as we later discover, romantic – partner, Sofiane (Tewfik Jallab), talks her into visiting her folks in the backwater. After riding on the passenger side of a semi-truck and snacking on Haribo Dragibus – seemingly very un-chef like – she is dropped off at a restaurant simply named Pit Stop, or so the subtitles say, where Gérard is back at work, having signed a waiver for his own release from the hospital. He resentfully keeps a notebook of every time Cécile disparaged the homespun cooking style of her parents’ establishment during her time as a cheftestant on “Top Chef” and consults it constantly to confront her.
Cécile apparently also has some unfinished business with her old flame, Raphaël (Bastien Bouillon). They seem eager to rekindle the relationship, though neither is upfront about their personal situation.
Perhaps it’s too early to herald the return of musicals in French cinema. While “Emilia Pérez” has the requisite razzle dazzle but god-awful songs, “Leave One Day” is the exact opposite. The songs are palatable. They’re nowhere on par with Michel Legrand’s classics, mind you, but the title track is quite nice. However there’s next to no choreography and even less stylistic flourish. Even the verité “Dancer in the Dark” felt like a proper musical. “Leave One Day” is just a movie with songs, like some of Bollywood’s ersatz musicals. During the last number, Ms. Armanet stops lip-syncing midway through, and the English subtitles also pause. It’s an interesting choice that proves my point.
The truly enchanting pièce de résistance is when Raphaël sneaks Cécile into a skating rink afterhours, and suddenly the scene transports into a flashback as they recount their final meeting before Cécile’s permanent move to Paris. What little choreography there is in the film, it’s here. David Cailley’s agile camerawork glides along with the two as if he’s on skates himself. The transformation from a vacant skating rink at night to a bustling one during daytime is pure movie magic.
For a plot with two ticking clocks – the restaurant’s opening and Gérard’s declining health – “Leave One Day” inexplicably lacks any real sense of urgency. It’s only 96 minutes long, but it seems to drag on forever. The restaurant and several relationships are at stake to be sure, but the one the film truly emphasizes – if Mr. Bouillon’s second billing and inclusion on the key art are any indication – turns out to be the least consequential.
Comments