Les combattants [Love at First Fight] **** (2014, Adèle Haenel, Kévin Azaïs) – Movie Review

Kévin Azaïs stars as dreamy blue-collar boy Arnaud, who runs into the doomy, aggressive, muscular middle-class teen Madeleine (Adèle Haenel) when she fights him in training on the beach.

They’re absolute opposites. He has good friends, likes a good laugh and the family business. He’s manly but soft inside and insecure. She pushes herself to the limit as a fighting, running, swimming athlete, and wants to become a hardcore army champion. She’s much tougher than any bloke. But then, opposites attract.

Co-writer/director Thomas Cailley‘s debut feature film follows the course of their unusual love story and struggle for survival as they join the young French folk who volunteer for an army training camp one happy summer on to-die-for, non-touristy locations in the South of France.

As an offbeat, coming-of-age romance, they don’t come too much better than this. Azaïs and Haenel give excellent, appealing, star-making performances. Cailley handles the film with great intelligence and loving care, focusing sharply on the characters, story and themes. It’s fresh and fun.

The American title of Love at First Fight is fun too. They should have used it in the UK too.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Movie Review

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