Drole de Felix

A gay road movie means one thing - encounters of a sexual kind. The casual pick up leads to flirtatious games followed by tearing off the tee shirt and WHAM!

Foreplay is a definite no-no. Wastes too much time.

Felix (Sami Bouajila) is different. He has a steady boyfriend. He is taking a cocktail of pills for Aids. He is an Arab, only too aware of Southerners' reactionary attitude to anyone with dark skin.

He travels from Normandy to Marseilles to see his father, whom he has never met. It is a sentimental journey. Rather than go by train, he hitchhikes along the back roads, which makes it easier for the cinematographer. He makes friends, he has adventures, he is almost killed.

The boy he picks up outside a cathedral is only 17. Although they steal a car, sleep together, take in a gay disco, nothing happens. He is responsible about that. Not so with the rail worker who gives him a lift. Within minutes, they are flying a kite on a green hill and WHOOSH! into the bushes. Can it really be this easy?

The other encounters are purely platonic - a kind old lady, a woman with three kids by different men and a white haired fisherman who admits he doesn't care about catching anything as long as it gets him out of the house.

Unless Felix's charm captivates you, the film is a bore. The one moment of excitement, when he comes across two thugs beating a Moroccan to death on a bridge in Dieppe, is quickly over.

Road movies are about roads and roads can be long and tiring.