If you have ever been to a ‘dinner party from hell’ then you will relate to this terrific five-piece ensemble, complete with a non-attending, but ever-present mother, making up the sixth person. In What’s In A Name? (Le Prénom) Alexandre de la Patelliere and Matthieu Delaporte have combined to direct a biting, at times very funny script adapted for the silver screen by Delaporte, who also wrote the original play focusing on the trials of friendship, family and the keeping of secrets.

The film opens with a fascinating history of some of the street names of Paris. We are introduced to the protagonists by default, when a pizza delivery guy turns up at the wrong apartment to deliver what are deemed by the occupant to be extremely over-priced pizzas. That’s literature professor Pierre (Charles Berling), who lives there with his long-suffering wife Elisabeth (Valerie Benguigui). They are frantically getting ready for a Moroccan dinner party in their fabulous cluttered apartment, to celebrate the news that Elisabeth’s brother Vincent (Patrick Bruel), a successful real estate agent, and his pregnant wife Anna (Judith El Zein), have determined the sex of their baby. They have also invited their best friend Claude (Guillaume de Tonquedec), a well-regarded trombonist.

For the next 100 minutes we are witness to a feisty debate that begins with a hilarious battle generated by the rather inappropriate naming of the baby but then ventures into much darker places as it progresses, and the effect this has on the close-knit, fractious group of friends. The performances are spot-on and as the tension rises, so does the hysteria, which dare I say, is very French. Mon Dieu! Strong parallels can be drawn with Roman Polanski’s Carnage, which was an adaption of Yasmina Reza’s play Gods Of Carnage but, in this case, What’s In A Name? feels like a real movie, rather than a play.

Although largely confined to one room, the actors are often in motion, followed by David Ungaro’s fluid camera. The end result is a terrific adaption and a smart and enjoyable production that proves once and for all how wrong the old “sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me” adage is, for What’s In A Name? is a formidable testament to the power of language. Formidable indeed!

// SALT

Hoyts Director’s Suite, Entertainment Quarter, Sydney on 17 July 2013