Storyline
Paul is preparing to leave Tajikistan, while thinking back on his adolescent years. His childhood, his mother's madness, the parties, the trip to the USSR where he lost his virginity, the friend who betrayed him and the love of his life.
The main impression I gained about 'My Golden Days' is a bit more care
could have been taken in casting the three actors who play the lead
character - at least far as looks go. When we first meet him, Paul
Dédalus, a French diplomat, is played by Mathieu Amalric, with his
distinctive, 'lived-in' face. We then see him as a child played by
Antoine Bui - who is facially so similar to Amalric they could be
related. But as a young man, Paul is played by the handsome Quentin
Dolmaire, who looks nothing like Amalric and Bui. If Bui didn't look so
similar to Amalric this aberration wouldn't be so noticeable.
But anyway, the story: returning to France after almost a decade
abroad, Paul comes to the attention of the intelligence services
because someone with the same name and date of birth has been
discovered in Australia. As Paul is questioned, we flashback to his
childhood living with his lesbian aunt, to an eventful trip to the
Soviet Union and to his student life, but most of all we examine his
relationship with the captivating Esther, whom he wins over with his
pseudo-intellectual gobbledy-gook.
Young Paul is that staple of French cinema, the student who spends too
much time thinking. Esther is that other overly-used staple, the
unhinged woman. This sort-of prequel to director Arnaud Desplechin's
1996 'My Sex Life... or how I got into an Argument' contains nothing
that can't be found in hundreds of other French films. But there's good
acting all around; Dolmaire and, as Esther, Lou Roy-Collinet are easy
on the eye and their cast of supporting characters interesting. If I
have any complaint, it's that I would have liked more - or indeed, any
- explanation as to why the child Paul disliked his mother so much, and
perhaps more screen time for Amalric - he appears several times
in-between the flashbacks of the first third of the film, then suddenly
disappears for the rest of it; it's quite noticeable. Where did he go?
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