Movie review: 'Women on the 6th Floor' loses its way

By Sean P. Means The Salt Lake Tribune

Published: December 22, 2011 4:15 pm
This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Things start promisingly in this French comedy, set in 1962, in which Parisian businessman Jean-Louis (Fabrice Luchini) befriends the Spanish immigrant maids who live in the tiny sixth-floor rooms of his apartment building.

At first, the Spaniards' carefree attitude — especially the tenderness of his new maid, Maria (Natalia Verbeke) — begins to warm the stodgy conservatism of both Jean-Louis and his status-conscious wife Suzanne (Sandrine Kiberlain), while Jean-Louis begins to gain empathy for life among the service classes (sort of like "The Help," without the civil-rights drama).

But director/co-writer Philippe Le Guay loses the handle on his story, turning it into a midlife-crisis fantasy that betrays everything that has happened before. —

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'The Women on the 6th Floor'

Opens Friday, Dec. 23 at the Broadway Centre Cinemas; not rated, but probably PG-13 for some sexuality and language; in French with subtitles; 104 minutes.

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