Three out of
Five stars
Running time:
91 mins
Keep Smiling is a rough-edged comedy-drama that's both darkly funny and genuinely moving, thanks to a sharply written script and strong performances
from its ensemble cast.
What's it all about?
Written and directed by Rusudan Chkonia, Keep Smiling (or Gaigimet,
original title fans) is a Georgian comedy-drama set in present-day
Tbilisi, where ten 20-to-30 something women (the majority of whom live
in poverty) decide to enter a televised ‘Georgia Mother 2010’ contest
in the hopes of winning the $25,000 prize and a coveted apartment. The
contestants include: former violin prodigy Gvantsa (Iamze
Sukhitsashvili), her jealous, disapproving neighbour Inga (Nana
Shonia), Abkhazian immigrant Elene (Olga Babluani), who shares a room
at a charity hospital with her husband and four kids, kind-hearted
Irina (Tamuna Bukhnikashvili) and spray-tanned trophy wife Baya
(Shorena Begashvili), whose politician husband is one of the show’s
sponsors.
As they enter the competition, the women discover they will be judged
on their cooking skills, on how well they've raised their children, on
their chosen talent and on their popularity with both the judges and
the TV audience. However, midway through the contest, slimy series
producer Otar (Gia Roinishvili) announces that there will also be a
swimsuit competition, which prompts a rebellion amongst the women but
also exacerbates tensions within the group.
The Good
Sukhitsashvili is excellent as neurotic Gvantsa, seeking to prove
herself after the failure of her earlier career as a musician, and her
sparky, bickering interactions with Shonia's Inga are one of the
highlights of Keep Smiling. There's also strong support from
Bukhnikashvili, Babluani and Roinishvili (who goes full slimeball as
Otar), though Begashvili gets disappointingly little to do and the
remaining contestants are barely even given any lines.
Keep Smiling’s script is frequently laugh-out-loud funny, though there's a dark
edge to the comedy as it gradually becomes clear just how desperate
each woman is to win and what the prize would mean to their families.
In addition, the film also takes some well-aimed swipes at reality TV
shows and there are a handful of enjoyably kitsch moments, such as the
mothers rehearsing a dance number to Lou Bega's ‘Baby Keep Smiling’.
The Bad
The main problem is that, in striving for a fly-on-the-wall
documentary feel, Keep Smiling’s rough-edged script loses focus when it comes to
the various plot strands, whereas it might have benefited from a
tighter, more straightforward narrative approach; it also doesn't
help that one of the film's most shocking moments is telegraphed early
on in a pre-flashback sequence, so you spend most of the film knowing
that scene is coming. Similarly, though Gvantsa, Inge and Elene's
stories are genuinely moving, it's frustrating that we don't get to
know the other contestants in the same way.
Worth seeing?
Keep Smiling is an engaging comedy-drama that's by turns darkly funny,
powerfully moving and genuinely shocking. Worth seeing.