What if you went on your honeymoon with your mother? This is the idea that director Nicolas Cuche, along with writers Laure Hennequart and Laurent Turner, explores in Honeymoon Crasher (original title: Lune de miel avec ma mère), though "explores" doesn't seem like an appropriate word to use for this film, which merely hits you with a series of lame jokes. Honeymoon Crasher entirely depends on the awkwardness of the situation to generate humor. The mother pecks her son for a "couple picture." The mother plays a game with her son that requires their bodies to touch each other. The mother refers to her son as "darling," and a host smiles while talking about giving privacy to the mother and her son. These moments have so much comic potential, but the filmmakers remain content with surface-level humor. They have made a mediocre product that just wants to pass the time of the audience. I mean, if you are spending all that money to take the cast and crew members to rich, eye-pleasing locations, why not spare some amount for the writers? Or are the writers themselves creatively bankrupt and mediocre?
Julien Frison portrays Lucas - the needy, infantile, and somewhat dull son of Lily, played by Michèle Laroque. He blames his mother for being so flawed, and he might not be entirely wrong. Lily has sheltered Lucas for so long that he has become overly dependent on her. Now, during their honeymoon, she expects him to loosen up. At one point in the film, Lily becomes so intoxicated that she accuses her son of being a boring schlep. A better film would have also laid some blame on the mother, but something like that requires a filmmaker willing to swim in deep waters. The people who have made Honeymoon Crasher want to tickle you with dumb jokes and then preach about the struggles of being a mother. These two intentions clash, resulting in a discordant tone and clumsiness. A dumb joke can be good if the filmmaker has a sense of humor. Cuche and his writing team are not blessed with this talent. They don't introduce a gag and build it to the point of explosion. Rather, they randomly throw a series of potentially funny scenarios onto the screen without comic timing or enthusiasm.
Lucas drinks tap water, develops diarrhea, and goes into the water to relieve himself. But before he can remove his pants, Maya (Margot Bancilhon) appears and starts alleviating his "stress." It sounds like more fun than it looks, however. Cuche doesn't allow the excremental scenes to repulse the audience; he also doesn't take the scene to delightfully ludicrous lengths. The grossness remains theoretical - Cuche likes to play safe. Why choose this particular material, then? The director comes across as bland as Lucas. A weed scene doesn't give rise to amusingly silly encounters, and the smutty potential of a shadow joke is completely wasted. Despite talks of orgies, open relationships, and wild sex, Honeymoon Crasher remains dreadfully tame. It has nothing racy to offer beyond its one-line premise.
Final Score- [2,5/10]
Reviewed by - Vikas Yadav
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Publisher at Midgard Times