What's in a Name? (Le Prénom) is a 2012 French comedy film written and directed by Alexandre de La Patellière and Matthieu Delaporte, starring Patrick Bruel, Valérie Benguigui, Charles Berling, Judith El Zein, Guillaume de Tonquédec. It is an adaptation of a homonymous play by the same authors and with almost the same cast. Élisabeth and her husband Pierre invite her brother Vincent, his wife Anna and Claude, a childhood friend, for dinner. Anna is pregnant and Vincent announces that they intend to call their son Adolphe. This shocks Élisabeth and Pierre.
What's in a Name? provides examples of:
- Adaptational Jerkass: Can be discussed, as it is mostly a matter of acting interpretation. Pierre in the play is loud and opinionated, but somewhat ridiculed by his constant Angrish stammering and tantrum-y attitude, clearly a little afraid of his wife. Pierre in the movie is a lot more soft-spoken and confident in his manner of speech, which makes it seem like he weighs his words a lot more, and therefore thinks what he says. His delivery can even be a little intimidating at times.
- All for Nothing : The name itself. In the second half, it is revealed to all be a big joke, but there's more: Vincent and Anna's baby is actually a girl, which means any debate over a boy name is a moot point.
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: All the characters eventually make up.
- Despite spending the whole movie screaming at each other, Pierre and Vincent finish the night together, laughing about the events of the dinner.
- Pierre and Élisabeth seem to be on the brink of divorce at the end of the night, but he leaves the den to go sleep with her after she banished him to the sofa, and doesn't come back. According to Vincent, their constant bickering is a form of foreplay.
- Same for Vincent and Anna, who end up reconciling between the dinner and the birth of their child.
- Subverted: Vincent eventually forgives Claude for his lies and mother-dating, and they embrace each other at the maternity ward; but Vincent's narration points out that he no longer views him as a friend, but as a stepfather.
- Babies Make Everything Better: The birth of Vincent and Anna's child seems to solve all the problems of the family.
- Behind Every Great Man: Upon becoming a mother, Élisabeth gave up on her thesis and allowed Pierre to claim her work as his own to get tenure. She also prepared his lessons when he was otherwise busy during her maternity leave, and generally does all the housework and childcare, allowing him to be, essentially, a full-time thinker. While she consented to all of this, she clearly resents him for it.
- Best Friends-in-Law:
- Pierre, Vincent's best friend, is married to his sister Élisabeth.
- Claude, Élisabeth's best friend, is in a relationship with her mother.
- Averted with Élisabeth and Anna, who, while on friendly terms, don't like each other that much.
- Big Brother Bully:
- How Vincent acted towards Claude in their childhood, with an emphasis on the "big brother".
- While not actively a bully to Élisabeth, Vincent enjoyed Parental Favoritism in a traditional patriarchal family, and she complains of being treated like his housemaid.
- Book Dumb: Vincent did not get good marks at school and not much general knowledge, but he is an affluent real estate agent.
- Bourgeois Bohemian: Élisabeth and her husband Pierre: they are both leftist teachers, they do not have TV, they read the leftist magazine Télérama, their children bear a double-barrelled surname and original given names (Apollin and Myrtille).
- Brick Joke:
- Soon after he arrives, Claude says he could accept a position in Marseille, not far from the house of Vincent and Élisabeth's mother. Later, it is revealed he is in a relationship with her.
- Vincent thinks that an old male acquaintance, Antoine Flemmadon, is a perfect match for Claude and he arranged a meeting between them. Later, when Claude says he is in a relationship with a woman, Vincent asks if his lover is Antoine Flemmadon.
- The Cameo: Bernard Murat (the director of the theatre play) as an obstetrician.
- Camp Straight: Claude is a 38 year old bachelor. He is a musician. He lives in the Gay Marais. He wears orange. He makes batter pudding. He likes manicures. He listens to Étienne Daho, Cary Grant and Luchino Visconti... but he is in a relationship with Vincent and Élisabeth's mother.
- Career Versus Man: Élisabeth says that she sacrificed her PhD to safeguard Pierre's success.
- Cerebus Syndrome: The movie starts as a light-hearted, fast-paced comedy, but becomes much slower and more sinister after Claude's confession, which leads to him having a long guilt-riddled monologue about his Star-Crossed Lovers situation, Vincent punching him in the teeth, Anna threatening Vincent with divorce with no custody of their child, and Élisabeth delivering a massive "The Reason You Suck" Speech about how miserable she is in her marriage and family in general.
- Chekhov's Gun: In the first scene of the show, Élisabeth tells her mother to call later in the evening. She does... right after Claude confessed to their affair.
- Childhood Friends: Élisabeth and Vincent are brother and sister. Pierre and Claude are their childhood friends.
- Credits Gag: The French title of the film, Le Prénom, means The Given Name. In the opening credits, only the given names are written.
- Delayed Narrator Introduction: The Narrator delivers an Opening Monologue using the third person, then he reveals he is Vincent.
- Dinner and a Show: The whole movie is about a dinner bringing together siblings and childhood friends. And then breaking them apart.
- Establishing Character Moment:
- During the Opening Monologue, Vincent presents Élisabeth saying that during his fifteenth birthday party, while everyone was drunk and throwing up, she picked up a mop and started cleaning up.
- During Vincent's first scene, he makes fun of his friends' affordable things, and makes them believe that his unborn son is dead before showing off the echography.
- Family Versus Career: Élisabeth says her career is not brilliant because she must take care of her children, since Pierre won't do it.
- The Film of the Play: The film is a faithful adaptation of the 2010 play of the same name. The cast of the film is nearly the same as the one of the play.
- Happily Married: Subverted. Both Élisabeth and Pierre and Anna and Vincent are described as happily married in the Opening Monologue. The film reveals the couples are not so happy, in particular Élisabeth and Pierre's.
- I Banged Your Mom: Claude is in a relationship with Vincent and Élisabeth's mother. They are both furious to hear about it, Élisabeth because she considers that he should have told her, Vincent because he sees it as disrespectful to his late father.
- In-Universe Nickname :
- Élisabeth is never called by her name in the movie, only Babou.
- At one point, she claims she could never call her nephew Adolphe, and offers to call him "Pitchoune" instead, a common pet name in the south of France. Upon hearing that her nephew is actually a niece, she excitedly changes it to "Pitchounette".
- Vincent affectionately calls Claude "the Plum" behind his back, after the Queen Claude plum (the French name for the greengage).
- He also calls him "Switzerland", to his face this time, for his refusal to engage in any sort of conflict.
- It's All About Me:
- Everybody (even his wife) agrees that Vincent is selfish.
- And Pierre, the one who calls him out on it the most, does so funnily enough, being quite self-centered himself.
- Ivy League for Everyone: Pierre graduated from an École normale supérieure, a very selective college.
- Kick the Dog : Literally. At age 13, Pierre kicked Mocha, Vincent's aunt's annoying poodle, into a lake, expecting the dog would be able to swim.
- Literary Allusion Title: The English title is taken from Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare.
- The Matchmaker: Vincent thinks that an old acquaintance, Antoine Flemmadon, is a perfect match for Claude, so he arranges a meeting between them.
- May–December Romance: Claude, who is younger than Vincent, is in a relationship with his mother. They seem to be passionately in love.
- Mistaken for Gay: Everybody has assumed for years that Claude is gay and just doesn't like talking about it. He is not. He is in a relationship with Vincent and Élisabeth's mother.
- Mrs. Robinson: Françoise, Vincent and Élisabeth's mother, is in a relationship with Claude, their childhood friend.
- Momma's Boy: Played with, as Vincent is more of a Daddy's Boy. The main reason for his fury against Claude, besides the Parental Sexuality Squick, is that he is offended on behalf of his late father, who always treated Claude like his own son.
- One Dialogue, Two Conversations:
- Anna does not know that Vincent has deluded the others into thinking that they will call their son Adolphe. She thinks he told them they will call him after his father. So when she tells them she thought they would appreciate the allusion, they are shocked.
- Later, Anna tries to get Claude to admit to his affair with Vincent and Élisabeth's mother. For a moment, Vincent and everyone else in the room believes she's talking about an affair she would be having with Claude.
- Opening Monologue: Delivered by the Narrator, Vincent, and paired with a closing monologue.
- Parental Substitute: It's implied that in his childhood, Claude had a less than pleasant life at home - and looked up to the parents of his best friend Élisabeth, who basically took him in. He was fascinated by their love, and eventually developed a crush on the mother.
- Prank Gone Too Far: Vincent pretends that he means to call his son Adolphe just for the sake of a funny strawman argument with his best friend. Unfortunately, he only confesses to the joke after Anna insults Pierre's own children's names, triggering the conflicts for the rest of the movie.Vincent, confronted with the ruins of his family's ties: ... I just wanted to make a joke.
- The Prankster: One of Vincent's defining character traits. While it made him popular as a kid, it's implied that the people closest to him have grown tired of it, especially since he can get rather mean-spirited. Élisabeth especially finds his light-hearted take on the world annoying.
- Precision F-Strike: After Vincent explains the prank to the others, unable to keep himself from laughing, trying to make the evening cheerful again, Anna delivers an ice-cold "Ta gueule." (essentially, "Shut the fuck up.")
- Politically Incorrect Hero:
- For all his leftist beliefs, Pierre doesn't even consider sharing the load of housework with his wife.
- Vincent uses a few words that lean into the homophobic slur territory, despite being close friends with Claude and even trying to set him up with a male acquaintance. He also strictly believes that a child should bear his father's name and his father's name alone.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Élisabeth delivers one to her husband Pierre, then another one to her brother Vincent.
- Romancing the Widow: Claude has been charmed by Vincent and Élisabeth's mother, years after their father died.
- Saying Too Much: After hearing that his friends thought he was gay, Claude is progressively led to confess that he is in a relationship with Vincent and Élisabeth's mother, which they both wanted to keep secret.
- Shout-Out: Vincent says he will call his son Adolphe as a tribute to Benjamin Constant's novel. Later in the movie, he claims he will subvert the Shout-Out by calling his son Adolf to reclaim the name, invoking how Charlie Chaplin reclaimed Hitler's tiny mustache.
- The Un-Favourite: Élisabeth is this compared to her brother Vincent. She says her parents gave him much more leeway.
- Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?:
- Subverted. Vincent announces that he will call his son Adolphe. Élisabeth and Pierre are shocked because they think everybody will assume this is a tribute to Hitler. Actually, Vincent was joking.
- Vincent and Anna confess they think Élisabeth and Pierre's children have embarrassing first names: Apollin and Myrtille. Myrtille meaning blueberry in French.
