Roberto Benigni's La Vitta e Bella tried to bring comedy into a concentration camp. Some have loved the result, but many have complained that the camp didn't look as hard as it really was, or that it was too easy to depict the nicest Jews against the evil Nazis.

Case Départ avoids both of these problems: the two heroes are both horrible, horrible persons, and their exposition scenes are small masterpiece in dark humor. And then, when, through the spell of a witch, they go back to 1780 at the time of slavery, the scenes are really painful to watch. You got the chains, the whip... They hardly toned it down to keep it funny.

You gotta hand it to the writers, who managed to make a comedy about slavery, when few things are less funny. But the movie also has quite a social statement to make, and makes it smartly as well as funnily. By having the two main characters representing one extreme of being Black in France (one is an "Oreo", the other a never-do-good who blames Whites first)... as you can guess, by the end of their journey, they will both have learned something important about their identity.

I recommend this film wholeheartedly.

On the one hand meet Regis, town counselor, house, big car, wife and kid. On the other meet Joël, an inner city tosser, who hides his own uselessness behind an easy excuse: it is the whites who are to be blamed for his problems. Two men who, at first sight, are light years away from each other except they are both colored, except that they both have the same father, a West Indian aptly named Grosdésir (Biglust),a stud who has scattered his small seeds toward every wind. Two half-brothers who have opted for two dramatically opposed attitudes to French society, either integration at any price (including the price of rejection and intolerance of one's own colored brothers) or total rejection (to the benefit (?) of claptrap, laziness and petty crime). The good idea of "Case Départ" is to have these two extremes confronted through the main characters who are forced by circumstances to mix with each other (a pattern once successfully followed by Stanley Kramer in his 'Defiant Ones', in a much more dramatic style of course). Their permanent conflict, which generates laughs throughout, also helps to examine the more profound aspects of the issues at stake (slavery, emigration, roots, integration...). Thanks to this well-mastered device, a fine mix of humor and reflection is guaranteed. Another pleasant find is to have our two "heroes" propelled into the past by an East Indian witch aunt who, outraged by their mutual disrespect of their ancestors, undertakes to make them not only understand but feel in their flesh what their forebears went through because of slavery. What better way indeed not to forget one's past is there than to have to toil from dawn to dusk,to be the object of contempt, to be treated like cattle, punished by lashes or threatened by the noose. After a brilliant introduction set in France, in which the two protagonists are presented with biting humor, ruthlessly satirizing all the negative attitudes from certain immigrants (only two sons of the immigration could afford that, a white would have been accused of racism),the bulk of "Case départ" follows Régis and Joël in their hilarious tribulations in the Antilles 200 years before 2010, as they are sold as slaves (still owning a cell phone, but without network coverage!),discover the hard way what their condition actually means. It goes without saying that the two fellows will travel back to 2010 but there is some suspense as to HOW they will do it. Tomas N'Gijol, as Joël the layabout, and Fabrice Eboué, as Régis the cowardly collaborationist, two comedians revealed by the Djamel Comedy Club TV show, are priceless clowns who complement each other extremely well. There is a good supporting cast around them : examples include Etienne Chicot in the interestingly nuanced role of Monsieur Jourdain, the plantation owner, and Franck de la Personne in the shoes of a ridiculous priest. If Lionel Steketee's direction is nothing more than serviceable, much pleasure can nevertheless be derived from this excellent offbeat comedy, acted to great effect and intelligently written by two future stars of French cinema, Fabrice Eboué & Thomas N'Gijol.

WARNING: SPOILERS!

(1) for a lot of detail, see Guy's review above!

(2) I chanced upon this film on TV. Did not recognize any stars, budding or otherwise. The first scene I saw was the loser brother, just back from jail and has already snatched an old lady's handbag, and his mom scowls him and hits him and in spite of being an adult, he starts crying, and she tells him, "leave the house, go get a job, and then come back!" I thought this was too cliché-y and almost zapped. Then I saw a scene with the other brother, whiter, not wealthy but with some money, a cute wife, a cute daughter and all. But who refuses to travel back to the islands to see his father on his deathbed, until his wife tells him that she can't stand the cold guy he has become. And I thought, let's watch 5 minutes more. Then pretty quickly they were at their father's bedside, they received an inheritance that seemed worthless, destroyed it... and ended up back in the day of slavery. A lot of either amusing, or more dramatic, moments where people from our day and age go back to "don't address a White unless told to speak!" and so on. Scenes with the white family a bit exaggerated, sure there were racist jokes all the time but I would hope that the whites weren't quite as pathetic (OK, the father is reasonable, and his son is courageous). Then like in all time-travel movies, they need to "fix things" in order to return to their time. Which, in this case, includes some difficult things. Such as making sure that their ancestors MATE (yes!),with one brother making sure the guy has an erection and introducing it where required, and the other brother holding the girl (both partners are asleep) and making here move so that things happen (that's at least PG13 isn't it?). And then like in all time-travel movies, especially the cult French film "Les Visiteurs", once they return they "get it" and amend their ways massively. And then, again exactly like in "Les Visiteurs", two secondary characters again damage the key paper, opening up the possibility of a "Case Départ" mark II.

All in all, an enjoyable film, both funny and deep, with quite good acting actually.