The three heavy hittters were the principal draw here and they don't disappoint. Fittingly - they are, after all, aristos of French cinema - they play aristos albeit seriously inbred and the overriding impression calls to mind one of those charity events in yesterday's England when theatrical 'royalty' let its hair down and enjoyed itself -the Coward number Three Juvenile Delinquents comes to mind. Fabrice Luchini is the most outre doing everything but scraping the ground with his knuckles whilst the other two are more nuanced. Throw in a pre-Laurel and Hardy duo - we are talking 1910 - here and we have a sort of Northern bouillabaisse where anything goes. The trick of course is to play it with a straight face which all hands do to a fare-thee-well. Not for everyone.

Anyone who doubted that Bruno Dumont could do comedy might have been surprised by "P'tit Quinquin" which was weirdly funny, surreal and highly imaginative. However, if you skipped "P'tit Quinquin" and have come straight to "Slack Bay", then your doubts will have been confirmed for this bit of slapstick is about as funny as an appendectomy. The setting is the Northern French coast in the summer of 1910 and follows the far-from-hilarious exploits of three sets of characters; a well-to-to family, there on vacation, a local family of muscle-gatherers and a couple of policemen, one very large and fat, the other small and thin, there to investigate some mysterious disappearances.

The policemen are obviously based on Laurel and Hardy, though it's unlikely this pair will raise a smile let alone a laugh. Dumont's idea of comedy is to have most of his characters fall down at regular intervals though some do take to levitating by the time the film is over. There is, of course, a sicker and more Dumontesque sensibility at work here, since the muscle-gatherers are also a family of cannibals, ('Anyone want more foot', says the mother to her sons),who are killing off the tourists and eating them.

The star, for want of a better word, of this rubbish is Juliette Binoche, cast as a comic grande-dame. At least she aligns herself with Dumont's vision which, in this case, isn't saying much. Visually the film is very beautiful and like "P'tit Quinquin" is weird enough not be boring but that is about all you can say in its favour. This one is for Dumont completists only.

It's a surreal macabre comedy, populated mostly by nasty cartoons, many of them are simply grotesque. While Bruno Dumont, the writer director of this film does tell us a very clear story, namely we all will understand what did actually take place on this bay, he never bothers explaining the reasons for the bizarre behavior of his cartoon characters. So we get an unsolveable mystery filled with mean caricatures of the uppermost bourgeoisie and of the police. He does get some of the best actors and actresses in France hamming their way through this weird story. And I would've rated it higher if I thought there was a reason behind this folly. One thing is sure, even if Dumont has some bizarre reasoning for this story - he doesn't want to reveal it to his audience.

One more issue I have to refer to: the name of this film. In English its Slack Bay, which alludes to the bay and to the nature of its residences. In Hebrew it became Disappearance Bay alluding to the mystery taking place there. The French name, that probably is the original is Ma Loute, the name of one of the main characters of this movie. Each name signifies different intentions, and I can't see why the original French name wasn't kept. You don't really have to translate a name.