Surprisingly emotionally powerful for a Feel Good movie, the French dramedy The Marching Band weaves together Odd Couple and underdog stories. Thibaut (Benjamin Lavernhe) is an orchestra conductor of global celebrity, who has leukemia and requires a bone marrow transplant; his sister undergoes a compatibility test, and Thibault learns that she isn’t his biological sister. He is stunned to learn that, as an infant, he was given up for adoption by a woman who already had a toddler son.
Thibault arrives in a downtrodden mining town to track down his biological brother Jimmy (Pierre Lottin). Jimmy turns out to be a working class divorced dad, earning 11 Euros an hour slinging hash at a factory cafeteria. Rough-around-the-edges Jimmy is cool toward the cultured Thibault, he but he relents to donate the bone marrow.
Months later, Thibault is in remission, and he returns to Jimmy’s town to thank him again. Thibault is surprised to find Jimmy is the trombonist in the town’s marching band. Jimmy wants little to do with Thibault for two reasons. First, he reminds Jimmy of their neglectful mother, towards whom Jimmy only feels rage and contempt. Second, having always experienced poverty, he is jealous of all the advantages that Thibault has been given by the adoptive family.
At Jimmy’s modest flat, Thibault is wowed by Jimmy’s impressive collection of jazz vinyl. Thibault sees what Jimmy himself doesn’t – Jimmy has perfect pitch, innate musical taste and some talent as a musician. Even with their shared musical interests, Jimmy resists getting closer to Thibault, but Jimmy’s bandmates embrace Thibault’s celebrity.
The marching band is getting ready for a regional competition, which is a welcome distraction for the entire community. The factory is the town’s biggest remaining employer, and unseen corporate interests are threatening to close it. This being France, the workers are responding with labor strife, and everyone is suffering anxiety and dread. And, now, the marching band loses its conductor.
Now, here’s the key to The Marching Band’s success. At this point, director Emmanuel Courcol and his co-writers Irène Muscari and Oriane Bonduel could have gone corny. They could have had Thibaut conduct the band to win the competition, save the factory and live happily ever after with Jimmy. Instead, the complications of our real world intrude, and the story heads to a much more emotionally powerful conclusion. The Marching Band finds it way to a profound expression of love without sentimentality.
Lavernhe and Lottin are excellent, as is Sarah Suco as Sarah, a local activist/trumpet player who likes Jimmy. Lavernhe and Suco were nominated for César Awards (the French Oscar).
One of the top grossing recent French films at the French box office, The Marching Band was nominated for seven César Awards.
The Marching Band is a real audience pleaser, and it’s streaming on Amazon and AppleTV.