Waiting for Bojangles (film)

Waiting for Bojangles (En attendant Bojangles) is a 2021 French-Belgian romantic drama film directed by Régis Roinsard, starring Romain Duris, Virginie Efira and Grégory Gadebois. It is an adaptation of Olivier Bourdeaut's novel of the same name.

Cast

 * Romain Duris as Georges Fouquet
 * Virginie Efira as Camille Fouquet
 * Grégory Gadebois as Charles, dit l'Ordure
 * Solàn Machado-Graner as Gary Fouquet
 * Fabienne Chaudat as Marie-Françoise
 * Éliza Maillot as Francine
 * François Raffenaud as a cocktail party guest
 * Aurélia Petit as a teacher
 * Christian Ameri as a florist
 * Jean-Pierre Durand (actor) as a fire chief
 * Milo Machado-Graner as Alexandre
 * Irène Ismaïloff

Reception
Bobby LePire of Film Threat gave the film a score of 10/10 and called it "mesmerizing from start to finish."

Ray Gill of Willamette Week rated the film 4 stars out of 4 and called it an "uneasy thrill ride full of uncertainty, as any great love story should be."

Calum Marsh of The New York Times wrote that the "vision of a life of immeasurable joy and passion — one lived solely for love, without limits or qualifications — is beautiful", and while the film is in "constant jeopardy of seeming maudlin or, worse, a little corny", it is an "admirable problem".

Christy Lemire of RogerEbert.com rated the film 2 stars out of 4 and wrote that despite "charismatic" and "committed" performances from Duris and Efira, the film spends "much" of its "overlong" running time depicting mental illness as an "adorable personality quirk, a source of good-time party vibes, even a glamorous quality", and that once the "frothy French romance evolves into a more serious drama" it "turns turgid, causing a jarring tonal shift."

Josh Kupecki of The Austin Chronicle rated the film 2 stars out of 5 wrote that the while the film "looks marvelous, with Roinsard artfully weaving through throngs of partygoers placed in vibrant, lived-in spaces and exotic locales", and Efira "continues her run of outstanding performances", she is "ultimately ill-served by a character and a film that’s removed any gravitas it seeks to instill by paradoxically not being removed enough."