“On a Bicycle!”: A Grieving Father’s Crazy, Back-alley Bike Therapy

Published on
Mathias Mlekuz and Philippe Rebbot in “A bicyclette!” by Mathias Mlekuz. EMMANUEL GUIMIER - MES PRODUCTIONS - F COMME FILM
Road-movie review by Mathias Mlekuz, with Mathias Mlekuz, Philippe Rebbot, Josef Mlekuz (France, 1h29). In theaters February 26 ★★★☆☆
To go further
Youri's sudden suicide pushes his father (Mathias Mlekuz) to embark on a road trip by bike across Europe, in the company of his best friend (the irresistible Philippe Rebbot) – the missing son having undertaken this same journey a few years earlier. A curious concept since the authentic tragedy that struck the actor-director is also the starting point for a fiction filled with revisited memories, anecdotes replayed by others but also moments of truth that emerge during long improvised scenes. The whole gives a film full of humor and charm but which sometimes pays dearly for its freewheeling policy as well as its ultra-proximity to reality. The excess of gravity triggered by this therapeutic journey does not always match its inclinations towards a crazy and truant comedy.
Topics related to the article
Le Nouvel Observateur