Incredible but true (3 Stars)

This is the 15th film in the Stuttgart Fantasy Film Festival Nights.

Most of my friends at the festival said they considered this the best film of the festival. I don't get it. It's a pleasant comedy with some laugh-out-loud moments, but I don't think it's exceptional.

The film tells two stories which are unrelated, apart from the same characters appearing in both.

Alain is an executive in an insurance company. He and his wife Marie buy a beautiful new house, which has an unusual secret. There's a duct in the cellar. If you go down it, you come out on the house's top floor. Not only that, you jump 12 hours into the future and you become three days younger. That's a frustrating magic portal. Every time you go down it you lose half a day. Alain has no interest in it, but Marie goes round and round in circles, because she's determined to become 20 years younger and be a model. Alain hardly sees her for years, because she's always in the middle if a time jump. (If you're good at mathematics, you can work out how long he doesn't see her).

The other story is about Alain's boss Gerard. He's had an electronic penis installed that can be controlled with a phone app. This second story provides the film's comedy, so much so that it's easy to forget that it has nothing to do with the main story. Or maybe there's a connection. It shows a man and a women who both want to become a real man or a real woman. Gerard wants to have a penis that will get erect any time on the push of a button. Marie wants to be a beautiful young woman again. Both are searching for something that the natural aging process has taken away from them.

Maybe that's what the director is trying to show us. Maybe not. Either way, the parallel stories jar. I wish the film had only told one story.