The Singer review

An ageing crooner makes a play for a young single mother in this elegant vehicle for Gerard Depardieu, immaculately cast as second-rate lounge singer Alain, a man who is content to spend his dotage warbling old favourites to pensioners in the dance halls of Clermont-Ferrand. When he meets pretty estate agent Marion (Cécile De France), it looks like she’ll end up as just another notch on his bedpost. Alain wants more than a one night stand, though, instigating a May-to-December romance that reinvigorates him both emotionally and professionally. Drab in places and far too long for its own good, Xavier Giannoli’s film could have done with fewer songs and more action. Thank goodness for Depardieu, then, who brings such Gallic gusto and zesty joie de vivre to his role that one can only sit back and applaud.