Holidays at All Cost (2021) Film Review | Movie-Blogger.com

It isn’t hard to identify the purpose of Frederic, Holidays at All Cost‘s (also known as Des vacances à tout prix) main character. He’s a living failure by his own standards, and he’s afraid to face his reality. His desperation makes him improvise and commit a crime even when he’s just trying to hide the fact that he can’t face his abusive boss. Fredric can be easily one of us. A blue collar worker trying to make ends meet.

In Holidays at All Cost, a family is submitted to a test, one that’s graciously depicted as a comedy affair of some sorts. The problem is the film can’t accomplished a far-fetched connection between a genuinely funny situation with the suffering of a man who doesn’t quite deserve everything that’s going on.

Are we supposed to root for Fredric just because he’s doing everything for his family?

Or are we supposed to understand the absurd consequence of such a moment?

Two films in one. And just one of them works.

Fredric has finally decided to take his wife and his kid on a vacation. Fanny has always wanted to go back to the place she grew up, so that’s where they go. However, Fredric’s job is truly a nightmare. His boss doesn’t pay overtime and Fredric’s incapable of standing up to him. The check he receives represents barely enough to pay the rent. Fredric decides not to tell his wife.

Instead he calls a friend, the one who will host them in his resort. They’ve known Jean-Luc since they were young. But Jean-Luc isn’t the same. He makes Fredric an offer: to stay for free if he can do some assignments in the resort. Obviously, Jean-Luc’s plan includes seducing Fanny now that he’s another kind of man. A skinnier one.

All kinds of situations arise when Fredric tries to do the work and hide it from Fanny. Bad luck isn’t part of this, as everything’s being manipulated by Jean-Luc who gets closer to Fanny.

Holidays at All Cost is a funny film. It’s well made, well shot, and Benjamin Garnier in the role of Jean-Luc is a riot. You will have a good time.

The problem with the film is it’s just a monotonous collection of comical situations in which Fredric is tirelessly ridiculed. After the first time,we understand where the film’s going. Yes, it’s that embarrassing. Believe me.

Aside from this, what do you get from Holidays at All Cost if not a forced third act in which all moral compasses are manipulatively cancelled in order to save a character from a subconscious bashing by the viewer? It’s absurd how even the film’s final scene is apologizing towards that world that’s capable of breaking a couple that’s simply flawed in communication. Did they deserve this humiliation? No. But not because they’re special. It’s because no one does. Not even fictional characters.

You will laugh during Holidays at All Cost. Just don’t pay much attention to whatever ethical guidelines you may be breaking by laughing at one man’s miserable and desperate measure to make someone happy.

Founder of Screentology. Member of the OFCS. RT Certified Critic

Dog dad.