Emilie Dequenne Archives

Review: ‘Mr. Blake at Your Service,’ starring John Malkovich, Fanny Ardant, Émilie Dequenne, Al Ginter, Anne Brionne and Christel Henon

September 1, 2025

by Carla Hay

John Malkovich and Fanny Ardant in “Mr. Blake at Your Service” (Photo courtesy of Sunrise Films)

Directed by Gilles Legardinier

French with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in France and briefly in London, the comedy/drama film “Mr. Blake at Your Service” features an all-white cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: An affluent British widowed businessman returns to the French manor where he and his deceased French wife met, and he unexpectedly becomes a problem-solving butler at the manor.

Culture Audience: “Mr. Blake at Your Service” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and old-fashioned movies about lonely people who create a familial bond together.

Fanny Ardant, Eugénie Anselin, Émilie Dequenne, Philippe Bas and John Malkovich in “Mr. Blake at Your Service” (Photo courtesy of Sunrise Films)

In a day and age when contemporary-set movies strive to be edgy or provocative, “Mr. Blake at Your Service” does the opposite. Grouchy cynics will dislike this comedy/drama that is old-fashioned and flawed but has a sweet nature and enough good performances to carry this film, which is about an unlikely English butler who breaks down social class barriers at a French manor. “Mr. Blake at Your Service” wraps up in a way that’s a little too contrived and has some other questionable filmmaking choices, but viewers who can tolerate watching the first third of the movie will probably like the rest of the film.

Directed by Gilles Legardinier, “Mr. Blake at Your Service” was co-written by Legardinier and Christel Henon. The movie is based on Legardinier’s 2012 novel “Complètement Cramé,” which means “completely burnt out” in French. “Complètement Cramé” is the French-language title of the movie, which also has the title “Well Done,” depending on where the movie was released. The movie’s biggest flaw is its uneven pacing: It’s too slow in some areas and then has a screwball slapstick sequence rushed in toward the end.

“Mr. Blake at Your Service” begins with Andrew Blake (played by John Malkovich), a successful businessman from England, refusing to attend the 28th annual Innovation Tradition Awards, a gala ceremony taking place in London. Andrew is being given the prestigious Man of the Year Award, but he has chosen to stay home instead. His close friend Richard Ward (played by Al Ginter), who is at the venue, has been frantically calling Andrew on the phone to ask when Andrew will make his appearance at the ceremony.

When Andrew finally picks up the phone to talk Richard, he tells Richard in no uncertain terms: “Thank everybody, but I won’t join the party.” Richard says in an annoyed tone: “I swear, I’ll make you pay for this.” Andrew responds, “Life is already presenting the bill, my friend.”

The reason why Andrew wants to skip this ceremony is because he’s been grieving over the death of his wife Diane, who died because of an unnamed reason four months ago. Diane and Andrew had been married to each for more than 40 years. Andrew met Diane (who was a native of France) when he had been hired to teach her English when he stayed at a grand manor in France called the Beauvillier Mansion.

Andrew and Diane have an adult daughter named Sarah, who is semi-estranged from Andrew because she says she’s too busy to visit him. It’s implied that Andrew was a workaholic for most of Sarah’s life. Now that Andrew is close to retiring and is a widower, Sarah hasn’t set aside time to spend with Andrew in the way that he had hoped.

Andrew tells Richard that Andrew and Diane had promised each other that they would go back to Beauvillier Mansion one day. Sadly, Diane died before they could make that journey. Andrew still has his heart set on going back to Beauvillier Mansion (which operates as a bed-and-breakfast vacation spot) to relive his fond memories of the early days of his “love at first sight” romance with Diane.

Richard drives Andrew to the train station. And when Andrew arrives at Beauvillier Mansion without a reservation, he finds out that the mansion’s owner has died and has left behind massive debts that his widow Nathalie Beauvillier (played by Fanny Ardant) now has to handle. Nathalie has gotten an offer to sell the mansion. And it’s very likely that she will.

In the meantime, Beauvillier Mansion needs to book more guests to stay financially afloat and is in desperate need of a butler. Nathalie doesn’t want to book any guests until the mansion has a full-service staff. The mansion’s sassy cook Odile (played by Émilie Dequenne) has placed an ad for a butler to work at the mansion.

When Odile opens the door to greet Andrew, she thinks that Andrew is someone who has answered the butler ad. When Andrew finds out the mansion’s predicament, he tells Odile: “I’d do anything to live here again, even just for a while.” And so, Odile comes up with the idea for Andrew to pretend to be a butler without telling Nathalie that he’s really not a butler. In exchange for his services, Andrew can stay at the mansion for free room and board.

The rest of “Mr. Blake at Your Service” is a light-hearted farce of Andrew trying to keep his real identity a secret from Nathalie and other people who live on the mansion’s property. Much later in the movie, Richard and his wife Melissa Ward (played by Anne Brionne) show up at the mansion, as Andrew is involved in this butler charade. In various ways, Andrew teaches certain things to these residents, while he also a learns things from them. Odile, the only person who knows Andrew’s secret, is standoffish to him at first, but she starts to warm up to Andrew when she accepts that his compliments to her (such as telling her that her cooking is worthy of a Michelin-starred restaurant) are genuine.

The mansion’s unsophisticated groundskeeper Magnier (played by Philippe Bas) first meets Andrew one night by shooting a gun at Andrew because he thinks Andrew is a thief. Magnier (who has a crush on Odile that could be mutual) and Andrew later become friendly and do things such as play chess together. Andrew teaches Magnier table etiquette, so Magnier can impress Odile on a dinner date. Yes, it’s that kind of movie.

The mansion’s bachelorette housekeeper Manon (played by Eugénie Anselin) is distressed because she’s pregnant with an unplanned baby and is afraid of telling her boss Nathalie about this pregnancy. Manon is in love with the baby’s father (who is never seen in the movie) and is having relationship issues with him. Guess who gives advice to Manon on how to fix the problems in her love life?

The movie’s cornball comedy is most evident when it has to do with interactions with two of the movie’s supporting characters, one of who is not human. Odile has a Persian cat name Mephisto, who doesn’t like to be touched and reacts to humans in the way that cute and wise cats do in these types of sentimental movies. There’s also a demanding and difficult guest named Madame Berliner (played by “Mr. Blake at Your Service” co-writer Henon), whose storyline ends with one of the most ridiculous parts of the movie.

One of the things that might annoy some viewers of “Mr. Blake at Your Service” is how Malkovich (who is American in real life) speaks in the movie. He gives his Andrew Blake character a slow, often-hesitant speaking cadence to demonstrate that Andrew is not fluent in the French language. Malkovich usually plays weirdos and/or villains in movies, but Andrew is not that stereotype: Andrew is just a lonely and earnest soul who finds more than he expected in staying at this mansion.

Ardant gives a perfectly fine performance as Nathalie, the elegant manor widow who is tryng to hold on to her dignity while struggling with the financial burdens of the mansion. Andrew offers to give her financial advice, but Nathalie doesn’t want him to know the details about her financial problems, partly because of pride and partly because she thinks that Andrew is a butler who wouldn’t know how to help her.

Dequenne has the most complex role as Odile, who purposely doesn’t like to share a lot of personal information about herself. Dequenne’s performance hints that Odile has had her heart broken in the past, but Odile doesn’t want pity and doesn’t want to tell the details. Andrew is the catalyst for Odile to look at the world with less suspicion.

“Mr. Blake at Your Service” doesn’t make the title character saintly. He has a side to him that can be rude and irritable. And sometimes his grief clouds his judgment. However, the movie has a heartfelt message of developing familial bonds with people, sometimes at a low point in someone’s life, and understanding that meaningful relationships often transcend differences in social classes.

Sunrise Films released “Mr. Blake at Your Service” in U.S. cinemas on June 20, 2025. The movie was released on digital and VOD on August 12, 2025. The movie was released in France on November 1, 2023.

Review: ‘Close’ (2022), starring Eden Dambrine, Gustav De Waele, Émilie Dequenne and Léa Drucker

January 29, 2023

by Carla Hay

Gustav De Waele and Eden Dambrine in “Close” (Photo courtesy of A24)

“Close” (2022)

Directed by Lukas Dhont

Dutch, French and Flemish with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed city in Belgium, the dramatic film “Close” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few black people) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: Two 13-year-old boys, who are best friends, become the targets of gossip that the boys are gay, they get bullied for it, and then tragedy strikes.

Culture Audience: “Close” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in watching emotionally authentic dramas about how bullying and repressed feelings can affect young people.

Pictured clockwise, from left to right: Eden Dambrine, Gustav De Waele and Émilie Dequenne in “Close” (Photo courtesy of A24)

“Close” is a memorable coming-of-age film that effectively shows the intersections of identity self-esteem, homophobia and mental illness from an adolescent viewpoint. If you’re looking for a Hollywood-made version of these issues, then you won’t find it in “Close.” And that’s not because the movie takes place in Belgium. “Close” has a more thoughtful, realistic and subtle approach that is the opposite of Hollywood-made movies that tend to have obvious messaging in overly contrived melodrama.

Directed by Lukas Dhont (who co-wrote the “Close” screenplay with Angelo Tijssens, “Close” had its world premiere at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, where the movie won the Grand Jury Prize. “Close” also received an Academy Award nomination for Best International Feature Film. It’s not a movie about trying to guess if the close friendship between two 13-year-old boys is about homosexuality. Rather, the movie explores themes of coping with grief, staying true to one’s self, and a heart-wrenching reality that love sometimes isn’t enough to prevent a tragedy.

“Close” takes place in an unnamed city in Belgium, where 13-year-old best friends/schoolmates Léo (played by Eden Dambrine) and Rémi (played by Gustav De Waele) are so close, when they have sleepovers, they cuddle next to each other in the same bed. This imagery in the movie is meant to get viewers to question and evaluate what they think is “appropriate” for kids of this age, in terms of masculinity and femininity. When 13-year-old girls act this way, it’s not automatically assumed that they are homosexual. But 13-year-old boys who act this way are usually perceived as being homosexual or being curious about homosexuality, if they express close and affectionate emotional intimacy with each other.

From the start of the movie, Léo shows that he’s the more confident and more extroverted of the two pals. Rémi plays the oboe as a hobby. Léo tells Rémi when they are in Rémi’s bedroom: “I have an idea. I’ll become your manager. And we’ll travel the world, even the moon. And we’ll become filthy rich.”

Léo also offers to upload a video on YouTube of Rémi playing the oboe. “It will get a million views,” Léo says enthusiastically of this proposed video. However, Rémi declines this offer. He wants to play the oboe for the pure enjoyment of it, not to get rich and famous

While they are in bed together, Léo tells Rémi a story in which Rémi must imagine himself as a newborn duckling who is more beautiful than the others. “You encounter a rhyming lizard, and you like it. You both leave and end up jumping on a trampoline. You jump as high as the stars.” And then, Léo blows air from his mouth on Rémi, to simulate the wind outside.

Throughout the movie, scenes with Léo and Rémi leave it open to interpretation if there’s something homoerotic brewing between these two teens, or if they really are just platonic friends. Other students at their school notice the ambiguity. Some of the students assume that Léo and Rémi are “dating” each other. One girl comes right out and asks Léo and Rémi if they are more than friends because she says Léo and Rémi act like they are couple.

Léo responds by saying that he and Rémi are best friends and are like brothers. However, Léo has more delicate-looking physical features, so he gets bullied more often than Rémi does for being “girlish” or “effeminate.” Some of the boys at school call Léo a “girl” and a derogatory term used for gay males that starts with the letter “f.”

If there is something “gay” going on between Léo and Rémi, then Léo is the one who’s more likely to show it physically, through affection or aggression. A scene in the movie shows Léo and Rémi playfully rough housing in bed. At the breakfast table the next morning, Rémi is tearful and says his stomach hurts. What really bothers him—but what he won’t tell his family—is that Léo got a little too rough in their playfighting the night before. As a result, Rémi acts aloof with Léo and seems to want to distance himself from Léo.

And what do the families of Léo and Rémi think of the relationship between these two teens? Léo lives with his mother Nathalie (played by Léa Drucker), his father Yves (played by Marc Weiss) and his older brother Charlie (played by Igor van Dessel), who’s about 16 years old. The parents are cotton farmers who expect Léo and Charlie to help out pick cotton in the field when they can. These family members of Léo are preoccupied with their own lives and don’t seem to have an opinion either way about the close relationship of Léo and Rémi.

Léo spends a lot of time at Rémi’s house and is very fond of Rémi’s mother Sophie (played by Émilie Dequenne), who is mutually admiring of Léo. An early scene in the movie shows Léo, Rémi and Sophie lounging together on some grass outside. Sophie tells Léo in a teasing voice that he’s more devoted to her than to Rémi. As for Rémi’s father Peter (played by Kevin Janssens), he doesn’t disapprove of Léo and Rémi’s relationship, but Peter is more of an observer who doesn’t get as personally involved as Sophie does.

At school, Léo is on the ice hockey team, where he gets increasing hostility from boys who think that Léo is gay. Rémi observes some of this bullying, but he does nothing to stop it. The hockey coach and any of the school’s faculty and staff don’t do anything either about this verbal abuse. Léo is often outnumbered when he’s being bullied, so he doesn’t think there’s much he can do to stand up for himself.

Meanwhile, Léo reacts to Rémi’s aloofness by spending more time with other kids in the school who are very tolerant of who Léo is. One day, Rémi has what can best be described as an emotional meltdown when he sees that Léo left hocky practice early and didn’t wait for Rémi so they could do their usual hangouts after hockey practice. Rémi starts a physical brawl with Léo in the school yard. The fight is so bad that some adults at the school have to intervene and put a stop to it.

It’s easy to see that even though Rémi initially put some distance between himself and Léo, it really bothered Rémi that Léo was going on with his life and spending time with other kids. What could prompt this possessiveness from Rémi? Many people could interpret it as Rémi being secretly in love with Léo and having a hard time coming to terms with it. However, “Close” never shows any explicit homosexuality between Léo and Rémi. Therefore, much of what the movie shows of Léo and Rémi’s relationship is left up to interpretation and speculation.

The relationship between Rémi that Léo is forever changed when an unexpected tragedy happens. It’s enough to say that one of the boys finds out that within this close relationship, he might not have known his best friend as well as he thought he did. How he copes with this harsh reality is one of the main plot developments in the second half of the movie.

In the production notes for “Close,” director/co-writer Dhont says that one of his biggest sources of inspiration for this partially autobiographical movie was Dr. Niobe Way’s 2011 non-fiction book “Deep Secrets: Boys’ Friendships and the Crisis of Connection.” The book expounds on how society’s definitions of masculinity and feminity affect friendships between boys. When boys reach puberty age, they’re expected to show their emotions less, as “proof” that they’re becoming men. That repression of emotions can often extend to friendships between boys too.

After all, when two 13-year-old male best friends say “I love you” to each other, people will often interpret it as “effeminate homosexual,” whereas if two 13-year-old female best friends say “I love you” to each other, they don’t get the same type of judgment. There is underlying homophobia and sexism in these gender expectations. “Close” invites viewers to contemplate and to be mindful of how this bigotry can affect emotionally fragile people.

All of the cast members of “Close” are admirable in their roles, but viewers will remember Dambrine’s performance the most. He makes an impressive feature-film debut as a 13-year-old boy who learns some adult life lessons in ways that his character Léo did not expect. The movie ultimately shows, in heartbreaking ways, the damage that can be done when people can’t or won’t express their true emotions to the people who matter the most to them.

A24 released “Close” in select U.S. cinemas for a one-week limited engagement in select U.S. cinemas on December 2, 2022. The movie was re-released in U.S. cinemas on January 27, 2023. “Close” was released in Belgium on November 9, 2022.