STAY WITH US - Mark Reviews Movies

Stay with Us, Film Movement

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Review by Mark Dujsik | May 9, 2024

Comedian Gad Elmaleh co-wrote, directed, and stars in Stay with Us, about a Jewish stand-up comic who considers converting to Catholicism. Elmaleh plays Gad, the comic, and members of his family also play versions of themselves. For a story that's clearly so personal, the movie seems more equivocal than direct and insightful.

The premise has Gad visiting Paris under the pretense of seeing his parents and some old friends, but in reality, he has been talking with a local Catholic priest about being baptized. The plan is to eventually tell his parents, too—in theory before the religious rite is performed. The act of just being upfront to them, though, is even more difficult than he probably imagined.

Like most semi-autobiographical comedies from professional comedians, the story feels like an extended and dramatized stage routine. The dialogue is filled with setups and punch lines, instead of just people talking about things in a straightforward way. There are complications and barriers that could be overcome with a bit of sincerity instead of delaying matters. Gad is even talked into performing on stage a few times, where his act gives us details of the character's life—meaning Elmaleh's life, too, of course—and hits all of the thematic notes that have to be struck for the movie to mean something more than its situational-comedy premise.

The good news is that Elmaleh takes the material seriously to some degree, although never so much that Gad's questions about and crisis of faith feels authentic. One of his Catholic advisors, for example, is a kind nun named Catherine (Catherine Thiercelin), who's thrilled to finally meet Gad after some online conversations about the possibility of converting.

Talking with her about his potential new religion, he jokes around about not being entirely convinced about Jesus, which leads to an amusing bit, like something out of a stand-up act. The scene, though, mainly reminds us that successful comedy is as much about knowing and reading an audience as it is the ability to tell jokes, and well, this particular audience might have a few questions about Gad's sincerity after the punch lines have been hit.

That's not the case in this movie, of course, because it is more about jokes and plotting than presenting a thoughtful account of a man wrestling with his faith. It's fine to some degree, especially when the movie focuses on Gad's relationship with his parents. They're Régine and David, played by Elmaleh's real-life parents (His sister Judith plays a variation of herself, too), and most of Gad's struggles aren't about confronting what isn't fulfilling about his Jewish faith and what specifically about Catholicism appeals to him.

Instead, they're about avoiding a confrontation with his parents, who raised Gad in Casablanca as part of the Jewish community and to get along with Muslims there. As for the Catholics, David made a point of telling his kids to never set foot in a church. The reason goes back centuries, to when Jews were forcibly expelled by a Catholic monarchy in Spain, but more practically, Gad's parents seemed to fear that all the stained glass, the ornate decorations, and the beautiful statues might be too appealing to kids.

They were right about the statues, apparently, because one of Mary, Jesus' mother, made a lasting impression on him, after he and his sister snuck into a cathedral when they were younger. Mary's the entire reason he's considering a conversion to Catholicism, for reasons that feel like an odd spiritual obsession. Gad can never put it into words beyond noting how much he admires Mary and finds her beautiful. As a joke, it's a decent setup, but as the setup for the exploration of faith and family that Elmaleh and co-writer Benjamin Charbit are also attempting here, it comes across as shallow.

Ignoring the rationale for the character's decision, there are some considered scenes here, and not all of them have to do with Gad discussing religion with the nun, the priest (played by Nicolas Port), a random woman named Agnès (Olivia Jubin) whom he meets in a church, and several other characters who are doubtful of his thinking, including an old skeptic (played by Guy Moign) whom Agnès is visiting. David has a heart-to-heart with his rabbi (played by Pierre-Henry Salfati), for example, who tries to explain to the father, after his parents learn the truth, that he won't lose his son because of this. The fear of loss carries over to Régine, too, who later has a heart-to-heart with a statue of Mary about that very worry.

Such scenes, though, are outliers in this story, which tries to be funny first, making the premise and execution come across as gimmicky. Stay with Us occasionally happens upon some notes of the underlying truth of this complex situation, as well as how it complicates and reveals existing complications within this family dynamic. This may be about a character defined by religious uncertainty, but that doesn't mean the movie itself should be so uncertain about its aims.

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