Return of the Hero

Set in 1809 France, this historical comedy follows Captain Neuville, a seductive man who departs for war after becoming engaged to Pauline. When Neuville fails to send any letters, Pauline becomes deeply distressed. To comfort her sister, Elisabeth begins writing fake letters to Pauline while pretending to be the captain. Through these letters, Elisabeth portrays Neuville as a courageous war hero. The situation complicates when the real Neuville eventually returns home, forcing him and Elisabeth to maintain the deception because the actual man does not match the idealized version Pauline has come to love.

The film was directed by Laurent Tirard, who also co-wrote the screenplay. This project is the fifth in Tirard's directorial sequence, following Up for Love and preceding The Speech. The movie stars Jean Dujardin as Captain Charles-Grégoire Neuville, Mélanie Laurent as Elisabeth Beaugrand, and Noémie Merlant as Pauline. Produced by companies including Canal+ and Nexus Factory, the film had a budget of 11 million USD and earned 7 million USD at the worldwide box office. On TMDB, the film has a rating of 6.3/10 based on 656 votes. This audience score is similar to the rating from film critics, which stands at 6.5/10 based on 15 reviews.