Iris (Calamy) is a long-married woman with a successful dental practice.  Is she happy?  Apparently not.  She and her workaholic husband haven’t made love in 4 years and rather than talk it through or see a councillor, Iris joins a Tinder-like app in search of quick hook-ups.  She has a series of ground rules (e.g. they can only be one-off encounters) and as the title explains, she meets men of differing ages, experiences, and personalities.

This latest from French writer-director Caroline Vignal is intended to be a comedy and so it’s about creating as many humorous scenes as possible.  In terms of the guys, some have quirky tastes while others lack understanding.  Outside of her sexual misadventures, Iris has other issues such as explaining continual absences to her husband (Elbaz) and stressed work assistant (de Baecque).  The way she interacts with her teenage children also takes an unexpected shift.

Perhaps I’m not the target audience but I struggled to find laughs given the contrived, over-the-top screenplay.  How many times do we need a joke about Iris’ mobile phone buzzing non-stop with dating app messages at an inconvenient time (like in bed with her husband or cleaning teeth at work)?  As alluded to above, it’s also a wonder Iris doesn’t have a heart-to-heart with her husband about their lack of intimacy despite her being an extrovert who’s willing to talk about anything.  She’s a topsy-turvy character who often lacks believability.

Iris and the Men marks the second time Vignal has worked with leading lady Laure Calamy in the past four years.  They teamed up for the likeable romantic comedy Antoinette in the Cévennes which was about a schoolteacher who went on a week-long hiking trip in search of love.  Sadly, the material isn’t as strong this time around and it feels like a simple idea stretched out for an unnecessary 90 minutes.  I realise the tone is different but the Emma Thompson-led Good Luck to You, Leo Grande is a much better example of how to extract humour, both light and dark, from the concept of an unfulfilled woman.

Unable to be saved by the finale (which doesn’t make sense either), Iris and the Men is an underwhelming French comedy which doesn’t live up to its promise.