LOL

LOL stands for laugh out loud – or just for Lola (Christa Theret), a Parisian adolescent with the usual problems: boys and mothers. She’s lucky with the latter, although she doesn’t always see it like that. But Anne (Sophie Marceau) seems to manage divorce, three children and the trauma that accompanies a beautiful, manipulative daughter with grace and good humour. This is a meringue of a film: sweet, light and empty.

Lola’s troubles with men and family are intercut with similar glitches in her mother’s life, but rather than lending gravitas to the girl’s woes, this conceit reduces the plot to playground level. Anne thinks her child is taking drugs? Never mind, a hug cures all. An unrequited ex-husband sees his former wife kissing someone else? Oh well, move on. A father verbally brutalises his son? It’ll all turn out okay. The children talk in smart, truncated slang (terribly translated: does any toker under 50 use the word ‘doobie’?) but they’re one up on their elders, who never talk at all. The upshot, despite the charm of the central pair, is empty calories.