Reviewed by Alicia Glass

Andrew Blake is a recently widowed British businessman, who finds himself taking on an unexpected job as a butler when he returns to the French manor house in northern France to be closer to the memory of his late French wife.

Based on the 2012 novel Completement Crame! (Completely Burnt out!)by Gilles Legardinier, in his feature directorial debut of the film as well, the film is pretty much entirely spoken in French, and subtitled. The manor house folk do make a point of saying how Blake’s French is a bit tortured, and truly, watching Malkovich roll his unforgettable voice through the niceties of the romance language already sets up the film for a lovingly awkward if well-meaning comedy.

So, Andrew Blake (John Malkovich) loved his wife, very very much. And they made some of their best loving memories here at the Beauvillier Estate, which unfortunately, is clearly not in much the same state as Blake remembers it. Financially, at least. Nathalie Beauvillier (Fanny Ardant) is a widower as well, and while she keeps the memory of her husband alive with a new outfit her husband wore daily mounted in her office, her concerns about keeping the Beauvillier estate afloat are clear and very present, and overshadow everything else. Not wanting to be in the way but not wanting to leave the manor for awhile yet either, Blake charms his entirely-too-British way into staying on at the Beauvillier manor, ostensibly as a butler that he has absolutely no training whatsoever for.

As Mr. Blake bumbles his way charmingly through things like ironing the morning newspaper, he meets the other curious characters of Beauvillier manor – Odile (Emilie Dequenne) is the headmistress if you will, answering nervously to the stringent commands of Nathalie, uptight and struggling while hiding a surprisingly good cook; Magnier (Phillippe Bas) is the handyman on the estate grounds, who inevitably has an unrequited thing for Odile and a strange penchant for building stick houses for hedgehogs; and Manon (Eugenie Anselin) is a junior maid who, it turns out, has shacked up in a stall in the barn of the manor house due to a whole set of unfortunate real-life circumstances.

Madame Nathalie believes the best way to turn the Beauvillier Estate around is to turn it into a country inn, and for that, she sadly needs yet more money. This means trying every single last scam prize jackpot offer that comes in the mail and this of course becomes one of Mr. Blake’s first duties, every morning. This also involves essentially genteelely whoring herself out to the likes of the plastic and toxic thief Mme Berliner (Christel Henon), and the couple Richard (Al Ginter) and Melissa (Anne Brionne) Ward, who both have unfortunate histories with Mr. Blake himself. This also means that Nathalie simply cannot afford to pay yet another servant, so the scenes where Mr. Blake is politely horrified by the room and board and cooking in exchange for his services are adorable and very British-civilized.

As much as he loved his wife, Blake determines, while he wanders the grounds of Beauvillier Estate taking simple glee at making nudging changes to the sad lives of the people there, that he loves the manor home perhaps as much, and does not want to see it fail, or be sold to some greedy corporation wanting to turn the place into a day spa or some such drivel. And he flits, mischievous and determined, like a fairy or even an angel, making connections both great and small to the people and the grounds, that ripple out to make good changes in his wake.

Saying anything else would simply detract from the warm charm and loving surprises of a very enjoyable little film, so for British dry wit meets French barely-restrained passion, see Mr. Blake at Your Service!