The exact opposite in physical and emotional scale to his big screen flirtation with Les Miserables, the latest from veteran Claude Lelouch is a complex chamber film.

Subtitled "An Inhuman Comedy", it's initially disparate and incoherent. A jaded and philandering businessman (disgraced former French government minister Bernard Tapie, no less) and decent, honest cop-cum-actor (Fabrice Luchini) both suffer stomach pains. Visiting hospital at the same time, they fall victim to a vengeful practical joke pulled by Dr. Nitez (Alessandra Martines). She has a very personal axe to grind with Tapie, and tells him he's dying. Luchini, on the other hand, is informed that his fatal cancer is harmless, in the misguided hope that positive thought might affect a recovery.

That's the spine of the picture against which subplots about a singing tramp (redundant), a teen romance (agreeable), and a con woman who picks up rich widowers at the cemetery (eccentric) are built.

And somehow Lalouche (producer and scripter as well as director) blends the whole together in a confused but hugely likeable stew. The teens provide some much needed urban grit, Martines is striking, and the lolloping Tapie lugs an authentically world-weary air behind him like luggage. Only the angel-faced Luchini is a little too ingenuous for his own good.

From that arch title to an ironic filmic coda, this is about as French as it gets. And, yes, you can take that as a recommendation.