Despite its title, “Bonjour Monsieur Shlomi” is not in French. The language spoken here is Hebrew, and the setting is present-day Tel Aviv.
Shlomi is a 16-year-old high school kid who’s got responsibilities beyond his age. When it comes to maturity, his role models aren’t really inspiring: Dad has been kicked out of the house for an affair, Mom is a scold who blames all men for her husband’s transgressions, Grandpa makes up stories about his heroic past, and older brother Doron is a swaggering lady-killer.
Shlomi’s the guy holding this mess together. He does the cooking, he tends to Grandpa, he reminds Doron to take his medication.
After all this, there’s little room for schoolwork, and Shlomi has always been lumped in with the dull-witted kids. Which is how it stands until a teacher notices Shlomi’s ability to figure huge math sums in his head.
The kid isn’t a dummy, he’s a genius – but with all the chaos going on, nobody noticed. Or cared.
This wouldn’t be a coming-of-age story without romance for Shlomi. He’s frustrated by a girlfriend who doesn’t want to take things to the next level (or make an “upgrade,” as the subtitles put it).
However, he becomes completely enchanted with Rona (played by the enchanting Aya Koren), who gardens in the house next door. She spots something special in Shlomi – not his wizardry at math, but a poetic side that he keeps hidden.
This is one of those movies where everything works out exactly as it should. I don’t know about you, but when I was 16 years old, there was no wise, welcoming, and effortlessly sexy girl next door who would magically show up at exactly the right moment. But then I guess that’s why people go to films like this.
A couple of things make “Monsieur Shlomi” a cut above TV-movie fare. One is the bright performance by Oshri Cohen in the lead role; this kid convinces us that there’s something going on inside Shlomi’s head that is worth spending a movie on.
The other is simply seeing day-to-day life in Israel, with people dealing with ordinary problems. We’ve seen a few of those kinds of films exported from Israel lately, of which “Bonjour Monsieur Shlomi” is the most feel-good of the bunch.
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