Franco-Belgian coproduction, Just To Be Sure features two stars, François Damiens and Cécile De France, who form a couple we love, searching for each other before – perhaps – finding each other.
François Damiens plays Erwan, a Breton bomb disposal expert who accidentally learns that his father is not his “real” or “biological” one. A whimsical private detective locates the “other” father, and contact is quickly established. It’s not necessarily easy for our big guy to handle… especially since the woman he randomly fell for is the daughter of this “second” father, meaning she is his half-sister, yikes! But that’s not all because Erwan’s own daughter is expecting a baby from an unknown father (well, not quite so unknown…). Hence quite a mix-up on the emotional front…
This film by Corinne Tardieu is a delightful surprise. On a dramatic comedy structure are grafted elements of pure comedy. Emotion mingles with laughter, but not in an artificial way, forced to please. The themes addressed are not typically those that lend themselves to humor: parentage, identity, the need to know one’s origins, to know where one comes from, what one is. Yet the quality of the writing and the care given to directing the actors ensure that it all comes together.
