‘Spoiled Brats’ Review: Living Life On The Fast Lane
The highly anticipated French comedy ‘Spoiled Brats’ has finally been released on Netflix, and once again, the streaming platform has added an excellent movie to its international vault.Â
The feature boasts a stellar ensemble and is directed by Nicolas Cuche from a script adaptation penned by Patricio Saiz.
When one looks at ‘Spoiled Brats,’ movies like the 1983 John Landis comedy ‘Trading Places’ or ‘2 Broke Girls’ in mind about a billionaire’s daughter turned waitress immediately spring to mind.
The story is set in Monaco, the home of the fabulously wealthy Frances Bartek and his three children Philippe Bartek played by Victor Artus Solaro, Stella Bartek, a role by Camille Lou, and Alexandre Bartek embodied by Louka Meliava.
The three siblings live on the fast lane spending their father’s hard-earned wealth left, right, and center without a single care in the world.
Their rich dad Francis Bartek played by Gerard Jugnot, is a widower and a workaholic laboring day in day out amidst health struggles to make all the money while his children carelessly blow it up.
As age catches up with the old-timer, his children’s spending habits get on his nerves. It dawns on him that he needs to do something about it; otherwise, his kids would turn out to be useless members of society who can’t do anything to help themselves.
Philippe being the firstborn, is supposed to take over the family business when the old man is gone. Still, instead of learning the company’s ropes, he spends his dad’s hard-earned money renting private jets and throwing parties in Ibiza.
Stella is a whole lot to handle as she spends tons of cash in high-end shops, whines all the time, poses ridiculous demands to the drivers, caterers, and hairdressers, all in an attempt to show the masses how exhausting her life of luxury can be.
And Alexandre is busy messing with the wife and daughters of the president of his latest university, one who forced his dad to fund a sports arena as a bribe so his youngest son could land a spot and get a chance to make something for his future.
But when playboy Juan Carlos played by Tom Leeb, asks for Stella’s hand, Frances can’t take it anymore, and he suffers a heart attack.
Spending some time at a hospital bed fighting for his life gives Frances the time and peace he needs to think straight. He realizes that his grown kids need to learn to be independent rather than being unreliable money-spending maniacs.
Two months later, the siblings realize that their cell phones have gone dead all of a sudden, their heavily loaded bank accounts are no more, and all credit cards have been blocked.
Francis picks up his children and takes them to his childhood home in a windswept villa in Marseilles, telling them that they are all in trouble with the fraud police and must lay low lest they end up in prison.
This story is, of cause a ruse as he just wants to teach his entitled brats a lesson as they have to look for work for the first time in their lives in order to fend for themselves.
Francis takes this opportunity to renovate his father’s home in an attempt to build a different life.
It is quite impressive that the trio does manage to land some odd jobs. Philippe becomes a tuk-tuk driver, Stella, a waitress, and Alexandre gets by as an apprentice to Francis, revealing a talent for home renovation.
Everything seems to be panning out perfectly as the children learn the value of a hard-earned dollar, and the dad gets to spend some quality time with his children, something that never happened before, giving the old man absolute peace of mind.
But when Juan Carlos makes a play to reveal Francis’s plan in exchange for blackmail cash, Francis is left to consider the unintended ramifications of his little experiment in tough love.
All the performances by the stellar cast are astounding, especially from French actor and comedian Artus Solaro who brings his quick wits and big heart to this feature. He also exhibits some cool Jonah Hill vibes which makes the movie more exciting to watch.
‘Spoiled Brats’ enjoys plenty of fun setting up just how feeble, and out of touch Philippe and his siblings are before Francis sets his experiment into action.
It’s even more hilarious when he visits a company with the anticipation of landing a senior executive job that comes complete with a car, all with zero experience on his sleeves.
As the set up to teach these spoilt brats a lesson about what it means to earn someone’s own money and not rely on inherited wealth and privileges, Francis himself gets some learning of his own.
Despite the feature being about spoiled brats, none of the characters are overly annoying, even at their worst moments in life. They still have some sort of charm.
The characters’ journey throughout the movie is fun to watch, packed with laughs and enough joy to keep the audience interested and entertained from the beginning till the credits roll.
Actually, it’s not the moments regarding the aspect of having everything one day then nothing the next at all that stands out in this film but the tranquil family moments the tycoon gets to share with his children when they are apparently at their worst.
It adds some sort of warmth and lightheartedness to the feature that keeps the film interesting and exciting to watch.
In general, the tough love taking a twist along the way in ‘Spoiled Brats’ has some great humorous moments, gentle social commentary, and most of all, a game cast to drive home its ultimately winning family dynamic.
It is a wake-up call to all parents to teach their children how to fend for themselves instead of depending on them for every single financial need they have.
‘Spoiled Brats’ is a good movie that will lighten your mood and is definitely worth checking out.
