For someone who loves French Cinema the plus side is a cast list boasting seven 'names' albeit one, Sergei Lopez, has only one brief cameo, whilst the negative side is that it was directed by Francois Ozon, a flavor-of-the-month helmer whose movies tend to fluctuate wildly between entertaining and pretentious. There's no way I'm going to spurn a chance to see Karin Viard and Judith Godreche in one film especially when there's a bonus in the shape of Fabrice Luchini, Catherine Deneuve and Gerard Depardieu. Alas, so many of them are wasted on what could have been a definitive Billy Wilder type comedy with a sting in the tail. It's not that any of the players are less than very good or that the plot is totally without merit it's more that instead of insight masquerading as froth we get froth that is barely froth, more the skin on the coffee masquerading as froth.

This sophisticated and witty comedy about business, politics and the dynamics of a dysfunctional family was the opening night attraction at this year's French Film Festival, and it is a crowd pleaser. Catherine Deneuve finds one of her best roles for some time here as Suzanne, a stay at home sixty-something woman who is married to the scheming and power hungry Robert (Fabrice Luchini), who runs the family umbrella factory with an iron fist. When the workers go on strike and take Robert hostage, Suzanne steps in to negotiate a truce. No longer willing to sit at home and play the trophy wife, Suzanne takes over the running of the business. She employs her two children to help with the day to day operations. And she even wins over Robert's secretary/mistress (Karin Viard) as a loyal ally to help implement some changes to the business. But that is just the start, and sets the scene for some unexpected complications in the third act. Potiche is based on a popular French farce written by Jean-Pierre Gredy, and Francois Ozon directs the material with unusual restraint, capturing the tone of those screwball comedies popular in the 60's and 70's. He makes the most of the 70's retro style settings and kitsch. Deneuve has appeared in several of Ozon's films, but this is her first appearance since 8 Women nearly a decade ago. She lends her luminous presence to the film, and brings a hidden strength, fire, intelligence, warmth and passion to her performance as the frustrated and sheltered housewife no longer willing to sit at home. In a smaller supporting role as a communist-leaning politician and former flame of Suzanne's, Gerard Depardieu has a twinkle in his eye and brings a light tough to the role. Both Deneuve and Depardieu are stalwarts of French cinema and the scenes they share together crackle with nostalgic touches of their film history. Luchini is good at playing weaselly, sleazy and unsympathetic characters, and he is very good here. Potiche is lightweight and frothy comedy with broad appeal.

Potiche is not a charmless film in any sense - it's visually very well observed, with a sincerely analogue feel that is thoroughly convincing, and occasionally it's fairly funny. So I found why I wasn't wholly enjoying the picture at the time pretty hard to pin down, but concluded that it was some basic narrative inauthenticity. Which should be fine, right? Because it was charming, and an almost pretty persuasive meta-farce; as whimsical, distracting and colourful as the brief dictates. But for a film of this length which functions, as you'll notice, in two - if not three - pretty exhausting segments, and whose foci are family, class, female equality and ageing, Potiche needed to decide what it was, who its target was, and commit itself to it with a bit more feeling. It was thoroughly enjoyable, but when has the treatment of these subjects, even farcically, not benefited from slightly more depth than Potiche has? I doubt you'll regret seeing it, but expect to leave not wholly sure what you've seen.