PLOT: Sebastien already has an infant, Paul's wife is pregnant and Fred's girlfriend is agitating for a baby. How fatherhood changes one's life (or not) in real and imagined ways is the theme of this buddy comedy. Sharp and funny.
Dodging The Clock (Horloge Biologique) is a brutally honest look at how some men view fatherhood. Not too surprisingly, it's laugh out loud funny.
This second feature from Quebec filmmaker Ricardo Trogi (Quebec -- Montreal) concerns three buddies, each of whom is in a different stage of the parent game: Sebastien (Jean-Philippe Pearson) has an infant he adores, but wonders if he'll be left out of the hunting trip and other male bonding rituals because he's a parent; Paul is about to become a father and he's worried that now he'll never achieve his goal of 30 sexual conquests; Fred is a bachelor who is tired of his long-time girlfriend and determined to ignore her demands for a baby.
Mix in beer, baseball and blarney and the result is a smart adult comedy. Dodging The Clock presents its characters on a warts 'n' all basis, with their loose talk, bad decisions and stupid ideas. Trogi, who also co-wrote the screenplay, manages to make these men look like fools and still gets you to care about them. That's quite a feat.
The guys talk about sex and commitment, about women and what women want, about what you have to give up when you become a parent.
They all have wild relationship fantasies. Each of them wants to believe he is still a chick magnet, a player, a catch. They all welcome adventure.
And when adventure turns up, some run like hell.
All three guys wind up in a relationship crisis as the story progresses.
Not everyone gets forgiven, either. Dodging The Clock has some pleasant cinematic surprises up its sleeve and the picture doesn't bother to concoct a happy ending.
Trogi is inspired when it comes to using music in his work, using it here as both emotional guide and punchline. The filmmaker has an eye for detail and an ear for dialogue and a cruel-but-funny insight into what makes people tick. Not too surprisingly, Dodging The Clock is already a huge hit in Quebec.
The film is in French with English subtitles.
BOTTOM LINE: Adult comedy is rarely this honest or sophisticated.
(This film is rated 14-A)
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