Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Spoiled Brats’ on Netflix, A French Comedy About Three Rich Fishes Suddenly Out Of Water

Originally titled Pourris Gates, Spoiled Brats (Netflix) is a lighthearted French comedy about tough love. Three impossibly wealthy, completely insufferable siblings get a lesson in humility when their father plays a trick on them, pretending the family is suddenly in the poor house. Forced to fend for themselves, the kids live a little, learn a lot, and even manage to teach their well-meaning dad a lesson in conscious parenting.

SPOILED BRATS: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: In Monaco, playground of the fabulously wealthy, Philippe (Artus), Stella (Camille Lou) and Alexandre (Louka Meliava) live it all the way up on their father’s dime. Wealthy developer Francis Bartek (Gerard Jugnot) is a widower, and besides that a workaholic; he shrugs as his children run wild with the bank account. It’s getting to him, though. Philippe is supposed to inherit the family business, but instead of learning the ropes he rents private jets and parties in Ibiza. Stella power shops, complains, makes ridiculous demands of drivers, caterers, and hairdressers, and generally overdoes how exhausting her life of opulence is. And Alexandre’s busy shtupping the wife (and daughters) of the president of his latest university, the one his father funded a sports arena for as a bribe to enroll his wayward youngest. When playboy leech Juan Carlos flippantly asks for Stella’s hand in marriage, it’s too much for Francis, and he suffers a heart attack.

Some time in the hospital gives Francis some time to think, and two months later the kids discover their cell phones suddenly dead and the money spigot frozen. (“My bank cards are blocked!” Philippe frets. “All six!”) Francis tumbles his kids into a borrowed beater, high tails it to his childhood home, a cobwebby villa in Marseilles, and tells them they’re in hiding from the fraud police. It’s all a ruse, of course. Francis’s business and money is safe. But he wants to teach his children a lesson. “What are we going to do, Dad?” Stella pleads, hysterical. “Something you’ve never done,” he tells his kids. “Work.” And as they flounder around Marseilles looking for jobs, Francis turns to refurbishing his dearly departed father’s home.

Weeks go by. Philippe is now a tuk-tuk driver, Stella is a waitress, and Alexandre gets by as an apprentice to Francis, revealing an aptitude for home renovation. Everyone learns the value of a hard-earned dollar, and dad and kids spend more quality time together than they have in quite some time. But leave it to a playboy leech to throw a wrench into best-laid plans. When Juan Carlos makes a play to reveal Francis’s plan in exchange for blackmail cash, Francis is left to consider the unintended ramifications of his little experiment in tough love.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of? Spoiled Brats most brings to mind the 1983 John Landis comedy Trading Places, though without the sneering social experimentation of Randolph and Mortimer Duke. It’s more like if all three kids were Dan Aykroyd’s character. You can also imagine the story of billionaire’s daughter-turned-waitress Caroline on 2 Broke Girls.

Performance Worth Watching: French actor and comedian Artus (born Victor Artus Solaro) brings a quick wit and big heart to Spoiled Brats, plus some Jonah Hill vibes (think War Dogs). Artus is no stranger to Netflix; he’s the host of the streamer’s catastrophe cooking reality show Nailed It! France.

Memorable Dialogue: “I know someone who tried to teach his children a lesson. He got schooled himself.” It’s not the most surprising twist — in fact, it’s not surprising at all. But one of the things Spoiled Brats has going for it is the unassuming charm and gallant humility of Gerard Jugnot as the brats’ father Francis.

Sex and Skin: Alexandre’s flings in the bedroom are played for laughs, not lasciviousness.

Our Take: “I’ve thought of everything! We rent a hangar with carpet…” Philippe’s latest business venture, “Shoe Fits,” is just as dumb as his vaping cigar startup and the air-conditioned underpants business he wanted Francis to fund. But this one — where underlings wear rich people’s shoes for a week in order to break them in — has the added stink of moneyed class myopia. The thing is, though, Philippe isn’t moneyed — his father is. And Spoiled Brats has a lot of fun setting up just how vapid and out of touch Philippe and his siblings really are before Francis enacts his finance experiment in miniature. There’s even more fun to be had once the plan is in action, and Philippe visits an employment office. Skills? Non. Experience? Non. But he’d like a senior executive position with a company car. Well, he shall have it. Tourists of Marseilles, meet your newest tuk-tuk taxi man. Philippe is now his own boss and driver!

As the plan to educate these rich snobs in a little bit of real life living unfolds, it of course becomes a chance for Francis to get some learning of his own. Some of the best moments in Spoiled Brats have nothing to do with the having and having not, but rather the quiet moments of family connection he fosters with each of his children. It adds a warmth and light-heartedness to the film that keeps what could otherwise be considered boorish humor well at bay.

Our Call: STREAM IT. The tough love-gone-twisted tale Spoiled Brats tells has some laughs, some gentle social commentary, and most of all a game cast to drive home it’s ultimately winning family dynamic.

Johnny Loftus is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift. Follow him on Twitter: @glennganges

Stream Spoiled Brats on Netflix