The Dream Team (2012)

Olivier Dahan, a director who once marshaled Edith Piaf's sorrow into an Oscar, turns his attention here to something far more durable: the Breton fishing industry and the redemptive power of amateur football. Patrick Orbéra, a former professional reduced to drinking and regret, gathers his old teammates to prop up a village squad, win some matches, and keep the local fishermen employed. The premise is sturdy. The execution is amiable. Jean Reno appears as himself, which is either a grace note or a surrender, depending on the hour.

The squad is notably polyglot, drawing on Omar Sy, Gad Elmaleh, Ramzy Bedia, and JoeyStarr, among others, and the film treats this as unremarkable, which is to its credit. This is a France that simply exists on screen, not one that announces itself. The economic grievance at the center, fishermen squeezed by forces larger than themselves, gives the comedy a faint populist pulse. It never sharpens into argument. The jokes arrive first and the message trails behind, waving apologetically.

The film's omissions are equally instructive. There is no romantic subplot pressed into service for a thesis, no lecture on gender, no environmental parable tucked into the harbor scenes. Frédérique Bel and Claudia Tagbo appear, do their work, and depart without commentary. The body is not a battleground here. The mind is not diagnosed. History is not corrected. The result is a modest, well-populated comedy about men of a certain age trying to be useful one more time. It is pleasant. It is harmless. These days, that restraint reads almost as an achievement.