A heart of schmaltz beats within this initially severe-looking French film from Stéphane Brizé. Patrick Chesnais plays Jean-Claude, a middle-aged bailiff in Paris, whose job consists of toiling up endless flights of stairs, knocking on the doors of depressed people and telling them their furniture is about to be repossessed. Something of this job has infected his soul and he has become taciturn and disagreeable - a temperament he has inherited (along with the business) from his cantankerous elderly father. Jean-Claude's life appears to perk up when his doctor recommends light exercise for a heart complaint, and he decides to go to the tango-dancing classes next to his office; there he meets the beautiful Françoise (Anne Consigny) who recognises him from childhood. It is a scenario taken straight from the Hollywood manual, but Georges Wilson's performance as the grumpy dad makes the picture worthwhile, particularly with a spectacular display of petulance playing Monopoly. His lonely pride, rage at the infirmities and indignities of old age and his fear of death are all sensitively and economically conveyed. It is Wilson to whom the title appears to apply most fully, and he who gives depth to the picture and rescues it (partly) from sentimentality.