Based on a play by Catherine Léger, Babysitter is a very smart and witty look at sexism, misogyny, and the male gaze. It also shows the amusing, but equally dire, consequences of men trying to overcompensate for their bad attitudes when they finally make a real attempt to change their mindset.
Patrick Hivon is Cédric, a man who finds himself in big trouble when he is caught on camera being sexist and harassing a news reporter. This gets him in hot water with his employer, and starts him on a path of (possible) enlightenment that he hopes will make him a better man, a better person, and a better husband to his wife, Nadine (played by director Monia Chokri). Nadine is also struggling after the birth of their child, which leads to the couple hiring a babysitter (Amy, played by Nadia Tereszkiewicz). Amy is very eager to help both Cédric and Nadine, but her help may end up making things a bit trickier for all involved.
First of all, I think I'd better say that my view of this film may be affected by my own male gaze, but I am hoping that Chokri deliberately played around with the framing and mis-en-scène to emphasise the journey of the central characters. It has to be deliberate (I hope), and it's brilliantly on the nose, from the first conversation with men who are rating women to the later imagery of men wrestling with a train of thought they now realise doesn't have to dominate their mind.
Hivon is a decent lead, but calling him a lead is only signifying his importance in setting the ball rolling on the whole plot. His character ultimately becomes sidelined as the focus moves to those with more problems to work on, whether that is Jean-Michel (Steve Laplante), another man who starts to think more about his attitude, or Nadine. Laplante brings even more humour to things, but Chokri does well to balance things out with more serious and sensitive moments, particularly in the scenes that have her character being unexpectedly helped by the babysitter. Tereszkiewicz is an innocent at the heart of everything, in many ways. She's the screen that others project on to, and her performance is often defined by her displaying a straightforward and pragmatic attitude that is at odds with anyone viewing her in a more sexualised way.
What Babysitter doesn't do is say "all men are bad and this is the way they can change", which is a great relief. It shows men looking to change for selfish reasons (social forgiveness, camouflage, etc) and then puts them in different scenarios that leads them from one riverbank to the next via a number of solid stepping stones. While wanting to go from one extreme to the other, and extremes are never good, the men show how much they misunderstand the needs of women, whether that woman is a potential lover, a tired partner, or a work colleague, and their journey takes them to a place far beyond where they initially envisioned.
Whether I am right or wrong in my way of interpreting certain aspects of Babysitter, it's a film I would happily watch, and re-examine, again. I can't remember the last time I had so much fun being reminded of the desperate overhaul required to lessen everyday sexism and misogyny.
8/10
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