Welcome back to Movie Recaps. Today I will show you a 2021 comedy film, titled Spoiled Brats.
Spoilers ahead! Watch out and take care. Widower Francis Bartek is a Polish descent
millionaire that came to France and worked his way up in the construction business.
Now living in Monaco, he has two sons, Philippe and Alexandre, plus a daughter, Stella. None of
them work, they live off daddy's money and are incredibly spoiled: Alexandre keeps skipping class
to sleep with women of all ages, Stella spends all day shopping, and Philippe keeps coming up with
bad ideas for projects and dropping company chores his dad gives him in exchange for partying. All of
them are terribly rude to servants and workers as well. One morning, Philippe comes to Francis'
office with a very dumb idea: hiring people to break in your shoes before you wear them. Francis,
who can't bring himself to scold his kids in any way since their mother died, says he'll
think about it, but his associate and close friend Ferrucio points out how ridiculous the idea is.
Philippe leaves after Francis gives him a package to deliver for the company, and Ferrucio scolds
him for not being stricter with his family. The excuse of their mother's death isn't enough
anymore, fifteen years have passed and they're adults now. Meanwhile, at the Bartek mansion,
Stella's birthday party has already started. Her lazy Argentine boyfriend, Juan Carlos, tells his
audience stories of his land while continuously declaring his love for Stella while she gets more
and more irritated by the lack of juice. She goes to the kitchen to yell at the service and
is interrupted by Matthias, an old acquaintance of hers who is working with the catering service and
doesn't hesitate to point out she's only happy to see him because he'll be working for her all
night. Francis spends some time in his home office before joining the party, talking to a portrait of
his wife while wondering where he went wrong and getting offended when his housekeeper, Marguerite,
tells him he's depressed. He finally leaves the room when he hears some ruckus outside and
finds Juan Carlos destroying an expensive bottle of vintage champagne when trying to open it by
throwing a golf ball at it. Obviously he's failed, but instead of accepting the responsibility, he
blames the waiter holding the bottle for moving. Afterward, he and Stella request to talk to him
in private, so he takes them back to his office and listens to them while cleaning his shotgun.
Francis obviously doesn't approve of Juan Carlos and he lets them know this when he hears he wants
to get married to Stella, also pointing out that Juan Carlos will be using Francis' money instead
of what he supposedly has in Argentina. Stella gets angry and reminds Francis he's always been
an absent dad, so this isn't her asking for permission to get married, she's just letting
him know before the couple storms out of the room to keep on partying. While Stella announces her
engagement to the entire party, making her best friend upset, Francis receives a call
from Ferrucio telling him that as he suspected, Philippe never did the chores they asked him to,
he went to a party instead, as confirmed by a video he's posted on social media. At that moment,
the principal of Alexandre's school arrives at the house ready to kill Alexandre not only for
skipping classes but also for sleeping with his wife. Alexandre appears on top of the stairs then
with both of the principal's daughters by his side because he's also been sleeping with them.
The principal tells Francis he regrets accepting Alexandre at his school as a
favor after he was turned down by everyone else before chasing Alexandre through the house.
Seeing all his children getting in trouble like this together is the last hit to Francis' stress
and his body finally gives in, causing him a heart attack. Francis wakes up later in the hospital
with Ferrucio sitting by his side. His children arrive as well but instead of being considerate,
they start arguing among themselves about dumb things, causing the heart monitor to show how
Francis' heart is starting to beat faster under the stress again. Ferrucio kicks them all out
before asking Francis if he thinks his wife would be proud of them. Two months later, the three
siblings arrive at the house, desperate to find their father after discovering their credit cards
and cellphones have been blocked and there isn't wi-fi in the house either. At that moment, a group
of policemen arrive as well and start surrounding the house and taking their cars, claiming they
have a search warrant. Francis shows up then with his shotgun in hand and tells his children to
follow him so they can sneak out of the house, and when they reach the road, he makes a random driver
stop by threatening him with his weapon, and the family takes his car to leave the area. As soon
as they are out of sight however, Ferrucio appears next to the driver and pays him for his service.
While driving to Marseille where they'll be safe, Francis explains the company is in trouble after
some funds have been misappropriated, so their accounts have been frozen and now they're wanted
by the law for fraud. The most likely suspect is Ferrucio, who disappeared the previous day.
Francis doesn't want them to talk to anyone about this until it's solved, so he takes their
cellphones and throws them on the street, which also helps them not to get tracked. When they
arrive at Marseille, the siblings are horrified by the humble life of the middle and lower class,
and their disgust gets worse when their father takes them to the place they'll be staying at:
his childhood home, which has seen better days. Many of the lightbulbs don't work and they'll
have to share the bed, but it'll do for now. While having fried bread for dinner, Francis
informs their kids that they'll have to get a job so they can survive. The next day, Francis
wakes them up at six a.m. so they can start their search for employment while he stays home, fixing
all the problems the house has because he can't go out there and let the police recognize him.
Since he's fed them all their lives, now it's their turn to feed him. Getting ready to go out
is quite complicated as well, the water that comes out of the tap is dirty and the sink is
right there next to the toilet without a door in between. So Stella just throws perfume on herself
while watching Philippe relieve himself without toilet paper to clean himself when he's done.
Alexandre tries his luck at a construction site, stealing lunch from some workers that kick him out
and send him to talk to their boss if he wants to work. Stella borrows a phone from a random man on
the streets and against her father's wishes, she calls Juan Carlos to tell him she's on vacation
with her family, consuming all of the man's phone minutes. Philippe goes to see a friend of his
that has always supported his ideas to ask him for some money to finance them, but his friend
finally admits he thinks his ideas are dumb and he just played along to have something funny to
talk about while partying. Some hours later, both Alexandre and Philippe return home without a job,
and the same happens with Stella, although she carries some expensive clothes bags with her.
It turns out she got some money by selling Philippe's watch, but instead of buying food,
she's gone shopping. The siblings start arguing and as revenge, Philippe pours soap all over
her new clothes. They're interrupted by the sudden arrival of Marguerite and Matthias,
who Stella called earlier. She's brought them some towels and clothes, and Matthias tells Stella she
can come over to the restaurant he works at for an interview. Marguerite also tries to give them
some of her savings, but Francis turns the offer down and tells her to go after making her promise
she won't tell anyone about this. The next day, Stella goes to the restaurant and is accepted as a
waitress on trial. She has some trouble balancing the tray and drops things without meaning to,
but she accepts to wash dishes and help gut the fish without complaining much. The clients drive
her crazy though, and it takes her a while to learn which table is which and to take orders from
multiple people in seconds. Meanwhile, Philippe goes to a job agency. The clerk is shocked to hear
he has no experience or qualifications yet asks for a senior management position with a rather
high salary and a company car, all paid off the books because he's in trouble with the police.
After convincing him to lower his salary expectations, the clerk gets him a job as
a bike-taxi driver, which is rather difficult for him to pull off because of his weight. Since he's
so slow on the bike, all of his clients end up being snatched by his rival driver Malek.
Ferrucio secretly visits Francis and brings him some expensive wine and lobsters, which
Francis at first doesn't want to touch not to be unfair to his children, but eventually he gives
in and enjoys the feast. When Francis mentions he'll be keeping himself busy fixing the house,
Ferrucio wonders if he truly is doing this only for the sake of the siblings. Suddenly,
they can hear some noises coming from the house and they grab the shotgun to investigate, only to
find that Alexandre, instead of going job hunting, stayed in and slept all day. Francis quickly sends
Ferrucio away and tries to clean the dishes before his son sees them, but it's too late:
Alexandre finds him and recognizes the lobster shell. Thinking quickly of an excuse, Francis
tells him he's fished the lobster and Alexandre believes it, saying nature always provides.
At the end of the day, Philippe and Stella bring some money home, which Francis divides into food
money and fixing the house money. When they hear the only thing Alexandre did all day was to make a
hammock and sleep, they get angry and don't share dinner with him. Alexandre tells them he doesn't
need them and goes to search for acorns, apples, berries, and other fruits from the bushes and
trees around the house, but all the things he eats only end up making him sick later. The next day,
Francis tells Alexandre he can earn his share by helping him fix the house. He wonders why
Francis never sold it, considering they didn't use it before this, but Francis only replies it
has sentimental value. At the restaurant, Stella argues with a client after the man is incredibly
rude to her because his dish was missing an ingredient. She's rather upset when she goes to
the kitchen to ask for it and thinks of quitting, but Matthias points out this is how she's always
treated waiters as well, so she shouldn't be surprised to get the same treatment in return now.
Stella learns to open her eyes to reality and decides to stay and be humble, so Matthias rewards
her by showing her what they do to rude customers: the cooks spit on their food. Afterward,
Stella starts working extra hard, cleaning floors and washing dishes as needed. In the evening,
after dinner, the siblings start arguing about who will wash the dishes, and Philippe accidentally
mentions Stella used to be anorexic. Francis is shocked by this news and wonders why she didn't
come to him for help, so the siblings point out he's always been an absent father and mention
all the things he miss because he had been busy working: Stella used to make herself throw up
for a whole year until she lost ten kilos, Alexandre spent a night in jail when the
police found him with some pot, and when Philippe spent two weeks in the hospital with peritonitis,
his dad never visited because he was in Japan and wouldn't cancel his business trip. But they know
their mother wouldn't have hesitated to fly over. Feeling likes he's being put on trial,
Francis leaves the room while claiming he can't be blamed for all their problems. The following day,
Philippe finally gets tired of Malek constantly stealing his clients and confronts him for it.
At first, they start arguing and it looks like they could end up in a fistfight as well,
but they suddenly discover their mutual love for collector trainers and become friends. Meanwhile,
at the house, Alexandre fixes the plumbing, which impresses Francis. When he asks how he knows
anything about this, Alexandre confesses that in high school, he and his friends diverted the waste
pipe into the principal's shower, and for that, he spent two months studying plumbing tutorials. Back
in Monaco, Juan Carlos is sleeping with Stella's best friend, who tells him about the rumors of the
family's money problems and the person behind them. Juan Carlos finds this very suspicious
because he saw Ferrucio at the country club two days ago, so he decides to investigate. Later in
the day, Francis apologizes for the father he's been, explaining how hard it had been for him
to suddenly become father and mother at the same time, and that they had only hidden their mother's
illness from them to protect them. The siblings think their father believes them to be spoiled and
dumb, but Francis promises he's proud of them now. Then they spend a lovely evening together under
the stars, sharing a drink and old stories from their youth. The family starts getting used to
this new life together, doing chores and fixing the house while enjoying each other's company.
Stella becomes close friends with his coworkers at the restaurant, and Malek teaches Philippe
some tips for being a better bike-taxi driver while they start working together to make some
money off Malek's trainer collection. Ferrucio calls Francis and tells him to end the charade
because Juan Carlos has been snooping around, but it's too late: he shows up at the house
a few hours later, revealing he's learned of Francis' lie while following Ferrucio around.
Francis offers to pay him any amount of money he asks for in exchange for Juan Carlos leaving
them alone, but he turns the offer down, claiming he wants to help. When the siblings
arrive, Juan Carlos tells them he's sold his properties in Argentina to pay the family's debts,
so now they have access to their accounts and the mansion again. Not wanting his children to
find out he lied to teach them a lesson, Francis plays along with Juan Carlos' act and accepts to
return to Monaco. When they make their way back to their house, Juan Carlos points out now they
can get married, and Stella accepts to kiss him, but she's more hesitant this time around.
The next day, during breakfast, Francis tells Marguerite how guilty he feels and how worried he
is about Stella marrying such a bad man like Juan Carlos, and Marguerite encourages him to confess.
When he discusses the matter later with Ferrucio, his friend thinks the same, so Francis accepts
his fate and decides to talk to his children. Juan Carlos knows Francis may open his mouth at
any moment, so he takes Stella with him to get eloped. Stella isn't very happy with the idea,
but Juan Carlos promises her they can have a proper party and celebration later. As they enter
the city hall, Francis calls Stella, but it's Juan Carlos that takes her phone and picks up the call,
pretending he's having a nice chat instead of hearing Francis' angry yelling. He hangs up on
him and tells Stella her father approves of their union while Francis grabs his sons and takes them
with him to stop the wedding. The one officiating the wedding is the deputy mayor, who is mute so
things are going rather slowly. When the ceremony finally starts, Stella discovers Juan Carlos' real
name is Kevin Lepoutre. He tells her some excuse about his father being a refugee needing to change
his name, and by the time he convinces her to still marry him, her family interrupts them.
Francis tells her Juan Carlos only wants her money and him having sold his properties to
save them is not true, the family never was in any trouble: it had all been a lie Francis invented to
teach their kids a lesson. The police they saw at their house that day had been paid actors.
Stella slaps Juan Carlos for what he did, then she leaves the room together with her siblings,
none of them wanting to talk to their father ever again. Nine months later, Francis hasn't heard
from his kids except for the monthly cheque they send him for living in his childhood home, but
he's never cashed any of them and saves them in a glass bowl. After a business meeting with some
clients, Ferrucio pretends to make a mistake while driving and takes a different road which turns out
it takes them to Francis' old house. There are also flowers in the trunk for him to give Stella,
since it's her birthday. In the house, the siblings are all doing very well. Philippe and
Malek are making money selling trainers, Alexandre works as a plumber, and Stella and Matthias are
opening their own restaurant together. Their mood drops when Francis enters the house,
and he notices how awkward things quickly get, so he just gives Stella the flowers and expresses his
regret one last time before leaving. The siblings feel bad and decide to accept his apology,
so they call him over and let him stay with them to celebrate all together as a family.