In the middle of the Aegean Sea, six men on a fishing trip on a luxury yacht decide to play a game. Read more …
During this game, things will be compared. Things will be measured. Songs will be butchered, and blood will be tested. Friends will become rivals and rivals will become hungry. But at the end of the journey, when the game is over, the man who wins will be the best man. And he will wear on his smallest finger the victory ring: the Chevalier.
Watching these men engage in one foolish game after another is at first mildly amusing then quickly dull and, by the time we get to the literal dick-measuring contest, Chevalier has become just another diverting yet toothless snapshot of the male experience.
The film is satirising aspiration, snobbery and the way that competition seeps into utterly trivial areas of its characters’ lives.
The performances are focused and controlled, but, like the yacht itself, the film is going nowhere, dramatically and conceptually.
It is a great premise with some mirthful moments but slight and lacking the depth or insight you might hope for.
Bolstered by an underlying allegory about the financial crisis, the film is abstract to the point of absurdity, but that may just be the point.
A fishing trip soon turns in to a struggle for supremacy among six male friends in this Greek comedy.
Edinburgh Filmhouse, Edinburgh from Friday July 22, 2016, until Thursday July 28, 2016. More info: www.filmhousecinema.com
Glasgow Film Theatre, Glasgow from Friday July 22, 2016, until Thursday July 28, 2016. More info: http://www.glasgowfilm.org/theatre/
Dundee Contemporary Arts, Dundee from Friday July 29, 2016, until Thursday August 4, 2016. More info: www.dca.org.uk
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