Netflix’s ‘I Am Not an Easy Man’ Is a French Comedy That Flips Gender Expectations

Movie: I Am Not an Easy Man (Je Ne Suis Pas un Homme Facile)
Directed By: Eleonore Pourriat
Director’s Previous Credits of Note: Primarily an actress in France, this is Pourriat’s first feature film.
Starring: Vincent Elbaz, Marie-Sophie Ferdane, Pierre Benezit, Blanche Gardin, Celine Menville

Where It’s Streaming: Netflix

What It’s About: So, imagine you’re a chauvinist pig of a man. A flirt and a womanizer — not a creep, exactly, or a criminal but just a walking boner of a man who we should all rightly roll our eyes at. Imagine that men gets conked on the head and knocked out, and when he wakes up, the world is fundamentally different. Instead of living in the patriarchy he’s lived in his whole life, the world is a matriarchy, where women are in charge of everything and men are cowed into subordinate positions and dress sexy for their piggish lady bosses. You would hope such a man would end up learning his lesson through such a farcical setup!

What Movies Will It Remind You Of: There are a lot of references at play. The “hit on the head, start seeing the world differently” thing has been done a bunch of ways, most recently the about-to-open Amy Schumer comedy I Feel Pretty. Perhaps this film’s closest American analogue is the Mel Gibson comedy What Women Want, where Gibson begins to hear women’s thoughts. And there’s even a plot in this that brings to mind the seminal McConaughey/Hudson comedy How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.

Highlight(s): Vincent Elbaz makes for an incredibly effective slick bastard. It’s a particular skill, and he sure has it.

Lowlight(s): You constantly get the feeling that this “What if women ruled the world” concept could have been much more thoroughly and imaginatively thought out. Like, first of all, Beyoncé isn’t even mentioned!

Worth Noting: Rather than adding subtitles, Netflix has chosen to default to overdubbed English for this movie. You can change it in your settings, but I’d recommend giving it a shot. It’s a deeply unusual way to watch a movie, and all the American voices sound vaguely like famous actors even though they’re not. It takes some getting used to, but it adds another level of weirdness to an already-weird premise.

Worth Watching?: You’ve seen many better attempts to deal with gender politics in romantic comedies, but you’ve definitely seen worse. Maybe watch this one in a group and have a laugh at these men wearing Juicy Couture and doing yoga (GIRL STUFF!) and have a bit of a talk about which gender dynamics get addressed here and which don’t.

Watch I Am Not An Easy Man on Netflix