It will certainly surprise Patrice Leconte's devotees if I tell them that Mick Jagger, the front man of the Rolling Stones is a professed fan of this French author. So, Sir Mick Jagger, if you haven't seen this one "Tango", I can recommend it to you (and of course to the aficionados of its creator) with, however a little reserve. Coming after a chain of pearls such as "Tandem" (1987), "Monsieur Hire" (1989) or "le Mari De la Coiffeuse" (1990), "Tango" is a little below them as regards quality.Because he knows that his wife deceives him with her lover, Vincent (Richard Borhinger) kills both of them but against all odds he's acquitted by a misogynous judge rightly nicknamed "l'élégant" (the smart man) (Philippe Noiret). In return, he persuades him (blackmails him would be closer to the truth) to join him with his nephew Paul (Thierry Lhermitte) to go and kill the latter's wife in North Africa. And our threesome embarks on a trip across France, then catches a plane to arrive on their destination. As soon as the three men are together, the film has the accents of a road-movie like "Tandem" a previous Leconte effort and the best in all his filmography. A road-movie shot in a hectic pace and peppered with preposterous meetings and events.When the film opened in French theaters in February 1993, Patrice Leconte was wrongly accused of misogyny. Its detractors couldn't understand the whole film. Men can't live without women. Just have a look at Vincent: after he killed his wife and after having been acquitted, he seems gloomy. And as for Paul, although he can't stand the idea that his wife is still alive and may live her life with another man, he's undecided about the acting. Even the judge doesn't seem to really hate women. After the sequence when Judith Godrèche killed her husband, he doesn't arrest her and even authorizes Vincent to have a baby with her behind the bushes in the country! Anyway, feminist characters are overall positive so "Tango": a misogynous film? Definitely not...Earlier in my review, I wrote in my review that "Tango" wasn't at the same level than the other Leconte films I mentioned. Very simply because when our threesome philosophize about the relationships between men and women and why they can't live together, the film becomes draggy and talky. The filmmaker tapped this function on the staple story to beef his film up but when it comes at the foreground, the machine turns without gripping and the interest somewhat wanes. These drawbacks stop the film from taking its place among Leconte's very winners.But apart from these somewhat intellectual pretensions, "Tango" shouldn't be dismissed all the same. In this entertaining black comedy, the Leconte touch runs throughout the film and should make the fans flock to it. This filmmaker has nearly always the gift to collaborate with peerless scenarists who scatter his films with potent cues. Then, "Tango" shelters strong sequences like the very first one during the opening credits. As a matter of fact, the first twenty minutes during which Leconte indulges himself with two spoofs of "North by Northwest (1959) by Hitchcock could justify the screening of the film. Another strong moment is the one when Noiret acquits Vincent: one can hear his voice but one can't see him. And still from Leconte this taste for the oddball, absurd detail. You have to see Noiret talking to his cat like to a human being or Borhinger fishing with a fishing rod without a line."Tango" isn't a new pinnacle in Leconte's career for the reason I previously mentioned but it shouldn't be rejected. Helped by its assets and a three-star cast, Leconte's fans should reassure themselves: they are in well-known lands. For me, Leconte will reach new heights again with his next film, the summery, nearly dreamlike "le Parfum d'Yvonne" (1994) which should have known a better commercial fate than its commercial fiasco.

... and I'm sorry I did, because this is one of Leconte's weakest efforts. After Ridicule, The Hairdresser's Husband, Monsieur Hire, Intimate Strangers, you expect only the best from Leconte: here though, with a script that plays like it came out of the bottom drawer, you get only a very lame comedy that the three male leads walk through.I will say that the cameo by Carole Bouquet is nicely set up and provides the only witty moments. She's daring where Lhermitte is timid, wish there had been a lot more like it. Miou-Miou, whose work I have admired in the past, is here stuck with a poor part as Lhermitte's wife. Michele Laroque is voluptuous and vacuous as Bohringer's wife.

***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS***This is Leconte in his Francis Veber-Billy Wilder mode and no worse for that, indeed an early - and arguably the best - gag has Wilder written all over it. After one of the leisurely openings he favored at that time (see also Tandem) Leconte introduces Vincent Baradoc (Richard Bohringer), a somewhat reckless driver, albeit he seems to be in a remote area of rural France. If we wonder why he is wearing a flying helmet we learn quickly that he is a pilot for, after driving to a small airfield he climbs into a small two-seater biplane, the kind with open cockpits, and 'buzzes' his house where his wife, the gorgeous Michele Laroque, waves to him from an upstairs window and as we move closer we see that she is moving er ... rhythmically; she is, in fact, being 'serviced' by her lover even as Bohringer 'skywrites' her name above the house. This is the kind of gag that Wilder would have loved but would not have got away with in his prime but there's a topper. The next scene finds husband and wife at home with Bohringer letting us share his suspicions via some standard 'what did you do today while I was flying' dialogue. In the next scene Laroque is again entertaining her lover but this time in the missionary position which still allows her to look out the window. All at once she stops what she is doing and advises her lover to take it on the Jesse Owens. When he asks why she replies 'That's not his writing, it's someone else up there'. Okay, you had to be there but that is a pure Wilderian moment. Lover takes her at her word and drives off, only to be pursued by Bohringer and drive off the road terminally. Laroque is by now also driving away but Bohringer pursues her by air, drops a bouquet in front of her car asking her to meet him at the airfield. When she does he proclaims his love and offers her a spin to celebrate their anniversary. He straps her carefully into the front seat and once airborne announces he is going to loop the loop, adding that he has cut he harness so that at the top of the loop it will be goodbye, Charlie. In court an unseen judge (whose voice we recognize as belonging to Phillipe Noiret) pronounces him a free man. And this is where the story really starts. In a restaurant Noiret's nephew Paul (Thierry Thermitte) is busy seducing a young woman oblivious to his wife Marie (Miou-Miou) sitting behind him. He returns home to find her in, or rather on the marital bed, sitting astride a stranger and in yet another Wilder-Veber moment Vincent takes a seat beside the bed and discusses the situation with his wife. She is adamant that she is leaving him, gets up, pauses at the door to say to the stranger, 'goodbye, monsieur, sorry we didn't finish' and powders. Paul tells his uncle what has transpired and they decide that as long as Marie is alive he will not feel free to pursue other women. This is where Vincent comes in for the judge puts it to him that unless he agrees to kill Marie the dual murder case will be reopened. And still we have barely started. The three take to the road and bond and dozens of verbal and sight gags follow before Noiret utters a last line that is only a notch behind 'nobody's perfect'. Another of the joys - if you like French movies, that is - is seeing Miou-Miou, Carole Bouquet and Jean Roquefort, all unbilled, turning up for decent sized cameos for which they are thanked in the end credits. Road To Zanzibar it's not but Road To A Million Laffs it most certainly is.

Fast paced and compelling watching, this movie simply hits the deck running, grabs your attention with both hands, and never stops. The dialogue comes quick and to the point, and for those who don't know French (me, unfortunately, being one), make sure you can read the subtitles just as fast as you can! There is subtle, cynical, tongue-in-cheek humor throughout. The viewpoint is decidedly that of the jaded, matrimony-weary male, but (possible SPOILER) don't let that deter you from seeing this movie, because the happy ending truly has a heart of gold. You will be glad you stayed with it until the end.The flight scenes are quite well filmed and fun to watch, and if you like airplanes, you will LOVE the action. (One of the biplanes in the movie reminded me of that beautiful yellow biplane in The English Patient – the one in which Colin Firth's character crashes).The road trip portion of the film wasn't bad either. They get into a variety of amusing scrapes, plus, it was hilarious to see them cruising around France in a big American station wagon which, now that I think of it, vaguely reminds me of that big station wagon in National Lampoon's Vacation.Great movie, definitely a "guy" film (even for those male viewers who don't think they could handle one of those darned foreign films – a French one no less!). However, the aforementioned ending will no doubt endear this film to the female viewer as well. I give it beau coup stars.