Bright Days Ahead

Play trailer

Bright Days Ahead

Released Apr 25, 2014

1h 34m

Romance

Comedy

Drama

Play Trailer

Watchlist

Watchlist

Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

88%

Tomatometer

24 Reviews

61%

Popcornmeter

250+ Ratings

A married dentist (Fanny Ardant) who has been forced into early retirement has an affair with a much-younger computer instructor (Laurent Lafitte).

Geoffrey Macnab

Independent (UK)

This engaging French comedy has Fanny Ardant in Mrs Robinson mode as an improbably glamorous retired dentist who has an affair with a younger man.

Rated: 3/5

Jun 20, 2014

Full Review

Leslie Felperin

Guardian

To the film's credit, no one finds the age gap that scandalous, but that doesn't mean it doesn't matter. These are people at very different places in life.

Rated: 3/5

Jun 19, 2014

Full Review

Nigel Andrews

Financial Times

Don't hold your breath, or your heart: it's not exactly Brief Encounter. But Ardant has the moves. It's the younger cast members who must struggle to keep up.

Rated: 3/5

Jun 19, 2014

Full Review

Sarah Brinks

Battleship Pretension

I think Bright Days Ahead will resonate with people who are nearing or in retirement, but people of all ages can appreciate it as a good film with a good story and strong acting.

Mar 4, 2021

Full Review

Edward Frost

CineVue

Bright Days Ahead is a likable piece offering reassurance that life begins, rather than ends, at sixty.

Rated: 3/5

Mar 26, 2019

Full Review

Jon Lyus

HeyUGuys

Bright Days Ahead is a fitting title for a story about one woman's transition at a turning point of her life where time is no longer her enemy, but her anchor.

Rated: 4/5

Jun 20, 2014

Full Review

Read all reviews

Laurent M

Fanny Ardant...toujours aussi belle...une histoire simple...douce...de tous les jours...que j'aurais aimé vivre...

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

03/17/24

Full Review

Audience Member

Age: Quest for meaning:/ So menacing it's funny/That sex with a boy.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/19/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Another recent one off the telly. I like the idea of a 'youth club' for oldies, and it enables a broader sweep of portraits to be painted. Fanny Ardant is great as the sixty-year-old having an affair with the forty-year-old computer tutor - very sexy. She would have been sixty-four when the film was shot, impressive. It's sensitively done, and is well resolved.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/14/23

Full Review

Audience Member

(37%) A typically French drama looking at an adulterous relationship between a recently retired dentist and her quite a lot younger computer teacher boyfriend. There's plenty of French realism here that's sort of like what a TV soap opera would be like if they were not so poorly made. While the plot is hugely simplistic to the point in which this could have been a 30 minute short and still had the exact same sort of impact. But the performances are decent enough, and there's not a huge amount of romantic movies out there about people in and out of love at the later stages of life. Maybe worth a look for French cinema fans, but I'm certainly never going to watch it again.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

02/25/23

Full Review

Audience Member

A gritty, but not spectacular representation of a love affair between the ages, in a gritty northern France location.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/06/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Three cheers for Fanny Ardant...

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/26/23

Full Review

Read all reviews

Read More

Read Less

POST RATING

WRITE A REVIEW

EDIT REVIEW

Marion Vernoux

Director

Fanny Ardant

Caroline

Laurent Lafitte

Julien

Patrick Chesnais

Philippe

Jean-François Stévenin

Roger

Fanny Cottençon

Chantal

Gemma Bovery

54%

43%

Gemma Bovery

Watchlist

A Perfect Man

20%

23%

A Perfect Man

Watchlist

Fading Gigolo

54%

41%

Fading Gigolo

Watchlist

In Your Eyes

61%

69%

In Your Eyes

Watchlist

Discover more movies and TV shows.

View More

View more photos

Synopsis

A married dentist (Fanny Ardant) who has been forced into early retirement has an affair with a much-younger computer instructor (Laurent Lafitte).

Director: Marion Vernoux
Producer: François Kraus, Denis Pineau-Valencienne, Juliette Favreul Renaud
Screenwriter: Marion Vernoux, Fanny Chesnel, Fanny Chesnel
Distributor: Tribeca Film
Production Co: Les Films du Kiosque, Direct Cinéma, 27.11 Production
Genre: Romance, Comedy, Drama
Original Language: French (France)
Release Date (Theaters): Apr 25, 2014, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Dec 17, 2014
Box Office (Gross USA): $9.1K
Runtime: 1h 34m
Aspect Ratio: Flat (1.66:1)

Most Popular at Home Now