Les randonneurs (1997)

Five thirty-somethings in romantic distress set off on a hike along the GR 20 in the Corsican mountains. Mathieu Lacaze (Vincent Elbaz) is a big, carefree, superficial goof who had hoped to meet up with Bernadette, but she didn’t come. Louis (Philippe Harel), anxious, introverted, and whiny, is the complete opposite of his younger brother Mathieu, who is running away from Jennifer, his tyrannical, hysterical English partner. He left her in Paris but cannot bring himself to break up with her. Éric (Benoît Poelvoorde), their guide, is spineless and opportunistic. He is married, but allows himself affairs on the hikes he organizes, notably with Nadine, whose love for him he exploits by making her believe he intends to leave his wife. Yet he feels guilty toward his wife and children. Nadine (Géraldine Pailhas), who is in love with Éric and once had an affair with Louis, is suspicious and jealous. She even proves petty and resentful. She is pleased that Bernadette, Mathieu’s provocative girlfriend, isn’t there to outshine her. Coralie, aka “Cora” (Karin Viard), was drawn into this adventure by Nadine. She tried in vain to make it as an actress, since she has no talent for it; she earns her living in real estate and hopes at last to find her soulmate. This is especially so after someone predicted that she would meet a man who would carry something on his back—a prediction she immediately took to mean a backpack. She seizes every opportunity to escape her loneliness. Not very sporty and quickly exhausted, she wonders what she is doing on this hike, which leaves her perpetually on the verge of tears. The scenery is beautiful, but the difficult, surprise-filled trail soon brings out everyone’s pettiness. The hike soon comes to an end. Éric leaves Nadine and goes back to his wife and children. Nadine pretends to accept this, but as soon as she gets the chance, she calls his wife to tell her that she is her husband’s mistress. For Cora, by contrast, the end of the adventure confirms the saying that good things come to those who wait, and shows her that a man can carry things on his back besides backpacks. On the boat during the return crossing, she runs into Jean-Jacques, one of her exes. A few months after the adventure, the friends meet again at Cora and Jean-Jacques’s wedding. Despite its rather cheerful and optimistic ending, the film concludes with two intertitles that temper that optimism. One is gently ironic: “Hiking is like life, only more tiring.” The other, with a certain bittersweet clarity, reminds us that things don’t always turn out as they should, and that opportunities, or even promises, are sometimes swept away by the winds of fate: “They had exchanged phone numbers, but neither of them called.”