A rare thing happened when this French comedy was made: the creator, Gerard Lauzier made a typical American movie. In fact, it appears this was a trial production for the remake Hollywood intended to do a few years later, minus the services of its creator. "Mon pere, ces hero" is a mildly entertaining light comedy for starters, with a Gallic twist.Andre, a divorced man, wants to spend his winter vacation with his teen ager daughter, Veronique in a beautiful place, the island of Mauritius, situated in the Indian Ocean. An island paradise indeed, with a large clientele of French tourists. Veronique feels awkward, at an age that she is still a child, but wants to be seen as much older. A father and a daughter traveling together was not exactly a common occurrence back in the last part of the last century, something that Vero decides to put an end to. She wants to pass as the mistress of her own father, in order to attract the young man she sets her eyes into.The situation Vero finds herself in, is rather unusual for Benjamin, the French young man who likes her. Because of the lie Vero tells him, Benjamin cannot stand sight of the older man that seem to dominate the girl he likes. There will be a confrontation when Vero decides to spend some time with Benjamin away from her father. Fortunately, things are resolved in a civil manner when Andre decides to cooperate with Vero's wishes.A slimmer Gerard Depardieu, one of the busiest men in the French cinema, appears as Andre, the father that wants to have a good time with a daughter he does not get to see as often as he wants. Marie Gillain, whose screen debut this film marked, is fun to watch as the naughty Vero. The promise she showed then has kept her busy after this appearance. Patrick Mille also made his first acting before the cameras shows intelligence and good looks. He showed he was well suited for a success in the movies.

Please do not pass this film by, it is worth all the effort to find it (I found mine on Amazon co.u.k), and similar to other forum users I watched the USA version first. Without going over the film details all of which have been written in this forum and in much better detail than I can muster, all I can say that this should not be compared to the USA version as the French version is far superior in every way.I gave this a 7.5 out of 10, one point missing as the transfer from a VHS take can only be considered very poor, but having said that I would not part with my DVD copy for ten times what I paid for it. Enough said, this is a top French comedy, and Gerard Depardieu out acts everyone again, this is a forgotten French gem :)

I actually saw this two summers ago in China, I saw a chinese dubbed version, but it was good nonetheless. The first thing to love about this movie is the theme soundtrack that it starts with. I've been trying to get a hold of it ever since. If anyone can help me, please email. Anyway, I loved the movie. Even though a lot of jokes probably got lost in the translation, I still enjoyed the movie very much. It's a very charming film, one of the best foreign films I've ever watched (and I watched a lot of good foreign language films, from Stalingrad to Au revoir les enfants) The dad is truely great in this movie, he puts up with so much, my dad would kick my ass for 1/100 of that. Veronique is great too, not many people have the guts to pull somethign liek that off.

"Mon père ce héros" is a quote of Victor Hugo, the most famous French poet of all time. And although the movie is very realistic, kind of true-to-life situation, it is full of poetry. It shows one more time that Love is a big awkward thing for everyone. It is a very nice comedy, rather funny and moving. The movie helps to realize the gap existing between a father and a 14-year-old teenager. All the actors (not only Depardieu And Marie Gillain) are sincere while the main subject is "lies" !! I deeply recommend you to see this film and not its remake - a bit too tasteless (actually the dialogs are exactly the same). However, if you want to spend a good time in front of your telly, I believe Mon père ce Héros to be the perfect choice.