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Reviews of Recent Independent, Foreign, & Documentary Films in Theaters and DVD/Home Video
MERCI DOCTEUR REY
When 23-year-old Thomas Beaumont (Stanislaus Merhar) answers a phone sex ad, little
does he know he will soon become a witness to murder. Unbeknownst to the voyeuristic
Thomas, the couple he's being paid to watch is none other than his father - whom he
believes is dead - and his father's young boyfriend, who kills the dad in cold blood after
performing a bizarre erotic dance. Confusing? Well, it gets even zanier when we meet
Thomas' mother Elisabeth, the brilliant Dianne Wiest who gets to show a divaesque side
that smacks of Faye Dunaway in Mommie Dearest, but even more over the top. Elisabeth, an
opera singer visiting her son in Paris where she is also to perform in Turandot,
admits she lied about his father being dead, but does not divulge she is also complicit in
the murder.
Naturally, Thomas is traumatized by the killing, so he seeks the help of a therapist: Dr.
Rey. Unfortunately, Dr. Rey has recently expired herself and taking her place is Dr. Rey's
delusional patient Pénélope (Jane Birkin), who thinks she's Vanessa
Redgrave. Thomas and Penelope form an unlikely, yet sweet bond. Meanwhile, Thomas is determined to smoke out his father’s murderer
by putting an ad in the paper for a guy matching the killer's description.
Don't let the Merchant Ivory Production listing in the credits fool you: Merci Docteur
Rey is hysterical, zany fun. It's a murder mystery with outlandish plot twists,
involving everything from brownies laced with pot, a supposed kidnapping,
dark-haired hustlers, and the real Vanessa Redgrave. The cast truly seems
to be enjoying themselves throughout the film, and the audience is likely to delight in the
mayhem too. Tanya Chesterfield
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