Return of the Hero

Whimsically directed by Laurent Tirard, the 2018 French film Return of the Hero is impossibly silly, lightly puncturing pomp and over-serious morality. In this period farce, Charles-Grégoire Neuville (Jean Dujardin) goes to war in 1809, leaving behind a weeping fiancée. Her skeptical sister, Elisabeth (Mélanie Laurent), takes pleasure in dressing down Neuville as a womanizer. But, seeing her sister heartbroken without letters from the front, she can’t help writing fake missives as Nueville to keep her spirits up. The letters make Neuville sound heroic—not like the war deserting, deadbeat fiancé he is—with the last missive pronouncing his righteous death in battle. Then the faux hero suddenly returns, forcing Elisabeth to dragoon Neuville into pretending that he is the gentlemen she imagined in her letters and swearing that will he never tell her sister about the lie. The wacky conceit is truly funny while balancing the high stakes of trust between sisters. —Solomon Gustavo