Michelle Pfeiffer plays a glamorous and somewhat imperious New York City socialite who discovers she is insolvent and decides to flee to Paris with her co-dependent adult son in the quirky comedy French Exit. The acclaimed actress—with three Oscar nominations under her belt and numerous other accolades accumulated over her long career—is up for her eighth Golden Globes award for her performance in the Azazel Jacobs-directed film, in which she co-stars with Lucas Hedges, Valerie Mahaffey and Imogen Poots.
Pfeiffer stars as Frances Price, an eccentric widowed Manhattan socialite, who pulls her estranged adolescent son, Malcolm (Hedges) from boarding school to bring him home to their lofty, privileged world of New York society. Years later, when her financial adviser informs her that she’s broke, Frances sells off the contents of her lavish apartment and boards a cruise ship with her submissive son. She also smuggles Small Frank, a pet cat named after her husband who died suddenly 12 years earlier, leaving Frances under a cloud of suspicion since she failed to immediately report his death.
Aboard the ship, Malcolm, who has left behind a girlfriend in New York unbeknownst to his mother, meets a psychic and has a quick shipboard romance. Later, staying at a friend’s unoccupied apartment in Paris, mother and son try to adjust to their new life. Gradually, various oddball characters, including the psychic from the ship, a private detective and a lonely expatriate acquaintance become part of Frances’ and Malcolm’s new circle. They are bonded together when Small Frank goes missing.
The motley group is eventually joined by Susan (Poots) and her new boyfriend, even though Susan still has feelings for Malcolm. They hang out together at the cramped Paris apartment, while the search for the cat continues. Tracy Letts provides the voice of Frances’ dead husband Franklin, who is channeled through Small Frank in a couple of séances, conducted by Madeleine the medium (Danielle Macdonald). Throughout, Frances has a maudlin outlook, convinced that the faster she can get rid of the remainder of her money, the sooner she can make her own final exit, and give Malcolm an opportunity to move on with his own life.
French Exit is written by Canadian screenwriter and author Patrick deWitt, based on his novel that was shortlisted for the 2018 Giller Prize. Though written and produced before the global pandemic, the dramedy is timely with so many people finding themselves in financial straits, yet it also is a timeless tale about the resilience some find during a crisis.
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