The French tagline for The Car Keys is, “Don’t go and see this — it’s shit!” Maybe that’s not quite accurate, but it’s a trifle which keeps drawing attention to its shortcomings even as it checks off the qualities necessary for a hit film.
Director-writer Laurent Baffie pitches his idea for a movie in which the hero spends 90 minutes looking for his car keys (only to find they’re in his other pocket) to movie execs who sneer at him, then is turned down by a huge selection of possible stars. So he decides to star himself, dragging along his pal Daniel Russo, while constantly breaking the frame to point out the cinematic devices being used.
Every French face you can think of, from Eric Cantona to Gérard Depardieu, is in it for microseconds, and some jokes rate a wry chuckle.