Review: Bawdy comedy and politics don’t mix in ‘Nobody’s Hero’

French filmmaker Alain Guiraudie, who in 2013 delivered the steamy, slow burn of an erotic gay thriller that was “Stranger by the Lake,� goes off in a completely different direction with his latest effort, “Nobody’s Hero.�

Actually, make that two completely different directions.

In equal measure a bawdy comedy about an average Joe who has an obsessive affair with a married, middle-aged sex worker as well as a sardonic socio-political portrait of a homeless young Muslim man who may or may not be a jihadist terrorist, the ambitious twofer never manages to find a workable tone successfully bridging farce and satire.

At the center of both halves of the thorny equation is Mederic (Jean-Charles Clichet), a single, balding, perpetually-vaping 35-year-old computer programmer who wishes to avail himself of the sexual services of Isadora (a terrific Noémie Lvovsky), the older prostitute he’s been stalking, albeit with a hitch.

Movies

Review: Counterprogram your summer with the magical realist charms of ‘Scarlet’

Italian director Pietro Marcello, whose rollicking ‘Martin Eden’ transposed Jack London to Naples, returns with a sweet new film based on a Russian story, relocated to post-World War I Normandy.

June 22, 2023

Declaring himself to be anti-prostitution, Mederic wishes for the hook-up to be free of charge, although he does assure her that he’ll cater to her needs.

Surprisingly, Isadora takes him up on his offer, provided that she makes it home in time to greet her possessive, abusive husband, Gerard (Renaud Rutten), and she sets up a rendezvous at the quaintly shabby Hotel de France in the city of Clermont-Ferrand.

But during their comically graphic encounter, her moans of satisfaction are interrupted by a deadly terrorist attack right around the corner at an outdoor plaza.

Unfulfilled, Mederic returns to his apartment when he’s approached by Selim, a young, wide-eyed panhandler (newcomer Ilies Kadri) looking for shelter.

Mederic ultimately takes him in, at first temporarily, even as he and his fellow neighbors still suspect the Muslim could very well be one of the attack’s elusive perpetrators.

Guiraudie, who penned the script along with Laurent Lunetta, obviously has much on his plate as his dueling scenarios ping-pong urgently between the forces of desire and paranoia before coming to an intersection of sorts, with the various players involved all congregating, Oscar Wilde-style, in the middle of Mederic’s apartment.

Any effort that manages to incorporate pointed observations about Islamophobia, casual xenophobia, female objectification and sexual hypocrisy, at the same time working in a loud make-out session in a cathedral confessional certainly can’t be accused of slacking, no matter how kooky or tedious things become.

But while there’s no shortage of old-school inspiration to be taken from films such as Bunuel’s “The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie� and “Diary of a Chambermaid� — minus the surrealistic bits — the double narratives at play here, each of which could have made for a respectable standalone film, are unable to find a unifying pitch.

Although the ending provides a hint of a way forward for the cast of true characters, the thematic free-for-all that is “Nobody’s Hero� does none of them any lasting favors.