Review: I Am Not an Easy Man (Je ne suis pas un homme facile)

I Am Not an Easy Man (Je ne suis pas un homme facile) is a French comedy that flips the patriarchy on its head and lands one very confused fellow in a world that seems upside down to him.

Damien (Vincent Elbaz) is a typical male. He’s entitled. He thinks every woman is his for the taking, no questions asked.

Damien is walking down the street with his pal Christophe (Pierre Benezit). Christophe is a famous writer. They’ve come from a book signing where the secretary Alexandra (Marie-Sophie Ferdane) did all the work. Christophe blew off his pregnant wife Sybille (Blanche Gardin) to go on a carefree stroll with Damien. Damien bashes his head into a street sign while turned around harassing a woman.

When Damien wakes up, the world is gender flipped. It’s a matriarchy. Men fill all the roles women had in his world. Men have no power. His boss is a woman who thinks he’s a harmless fool. He quits in a rage.

Alexandra is now the famous writer and Christophe is her secretary. When Sybille has her baby, Christophe stays home with it. Damien takes over Christophe’s job as secretary.

Damien tries to convince Alexandra that the world he came from is different. She thinks what he’s telling her is ridiculous and deranged. She finds the idea so funny she decides to write a book about it. Her boss at the publishing house finds it hilarious, too.

The audience who will be the most astonished by this gender flipped comedy are the men who don’t really understand what women are  marching and complaining about. Seeing things happen to men that we accept happening to women should be eye opening for them.  Women will point at the TV and shout, “See, that’s what I’m talking about!”

I liked the premise of I Am Not an Easy Man (Je ne suis pas un homme facile). It made a point very effectively. I wasn’t crazy about the romance that came into it, but I suppose it was needed to help Damien become a better man once he went back to his “real” world.

The acting from the entire cast was excellent. I thought Marie-Sophie Ferdane in particular did an outstanding job. She went from the subservient secretary to the in-charge-boss with the perfect finesse.

I Am Not an Easy Man (Je ne suis pas un homme facile) was co-written and directed by Eleonore Pourriat. Ariane Fert was co-writer. It’s a 2018 release now on Netflix. The film is in French with English subtitles. Watch it with some men if you can. The discussion afterwards should be interesting.