Philippe Mars is an ordinary man: a divorced father, a respectable partner of a computer company, a discreet citizen. Until the day his unstable, antisocial colleague Jerome, who is on the edge of depression, changes his life. When Jerome loses his job following a tantrum that does not go unnoticed, he decides to take refuge with Philip, who agrees to host him without knowing the consequences of his kindness ...

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Sixteen years have passed since the surprise success With a Friend Like Harry…, earned Dominik Moll the César for Best Director. Since then it’s been crickets, or almost: Lemming with Charlotte Gainsbourg and The Monk with Vincent Cassel went undetected, despite controversial casting and clear ambitions. And now there’s News from Planet Mars, a comedy more innocuous than funny, which is based on the worn-out trope of confrontation between two total opposites. To this formula Moll adds a dose of simplistic fantasy and cheesy pseudo-poetry in an attempt to give a little respect to the comfortable but successful scenes between François Damiens and Vincent Macaigne*. All in all, a missed opportunity, even though you really want to love this wannabe off-the-wall comedy.