Alice invites all four men she has loved in her life for the dinner of New Year's Eve at the same time and unites them all in her house. In sentimental flashbacks they recall the former times. At 35, Alice is a career woman who doesn't think she has time for a lasting relationship. Thus, her love life has been, and probably always will be, a series of trysts and one-night stands.
Now I think that, perhaps, "Alice" (Catherine Deneuve) was taking a chance when she hit on the idea of inviting the loves of her life to a dinner on New Year's Eve. What's clear from the outset is that this eclectic gathering is going to stimulate an whole load of emotions and memories - and that's where auteur Claude Berri proceeds to take us for the next ninety minutes or so. These four men could hardly be more different and though that might have looked good on the page it doesn't work quite so well on screen. Serge Gainsbourg's "Simon" is a singer, Gérard Depardieu a typically temperamental musician, Alain Souchon's "Claude" is maybe the most benign of the four before, finally, there's Jean-Louis Trintignant as the patient and more reserved "Lucien". The thrust of the story does rather run counter to tradition in that it's actually her who gets fed up with them. She is beautiful, witty but easily bored. Just as she is initially attracted to the diversities amongst her lovers, she quickly tires of them and being who she is, "Alice" never has to wait long for another to fall in love with her. It's not that she is flighty, or even fickle, it's that she just can't find enduring satisfaction. She can't commit to love - and as the dinner proceeds we are are taken on numerous flashbacks illustrating the ups and downs of these relationship, but she wants to commit to friendship. That's not so easy for the frustrated and frequently quite angry men! The premiss is interesting and Deneuve is on solid form as she delivers an increasingly measured characterisation amidst the vacillating, tantrums, and genuine moments of affection - especially with her growing children who seem to have inherited their mother's trait for taking a rather selfish attitude to life. Sadly, though, it is all a bit messy. There's a great deal of dialogue and we don't really focus enough on any of the relationships - nor those with her kids - to get much depth from the narrative. Maybe four men and a lifetime was just too ambitious to cram into this drama? The casting does work though, there's loads of chemistry and it's worth a watch. Just not quite the sum of it's parts.
