What's in a Name poster

What's in a Name (2012)

Film · 1h 49m · In French

Comedy, Foreign (non-English)

A dinner party unravels as a provocative baby name ignites a darkly funny, intimate, and satirical battle of wits.

Darkly comic, with dry wit. A date-night pick at a measured pace. Emotionally it is heavy.

Streaming on Kanopy (free), Hoopla (free), Fandango at Home (free) and Tubi (free).

What's in a Name parents guide

There is no US rating to lean on, so here is what we tagged: some strong language.

Scare
Not scary
Jump scares
None noted
Gore
No gore
Violence
No real violence
Sex and nudity
Mild
Mild means innuendo, or sex implied off screen, with no nudity.
Language
Moderate
Some strong profanity, a few f-words.

How we rate: an AI reads what is known about each title and tags it 0 to 3; we check the tags against a hand-rated set and correct them by hand when readers tell us. Estimates, not a scene-by-scene review. Spot a mistake? Tell us.

What is What's in a Name about?

Vincent, a wealthy real estate agent, is invited to dinner by his sister Elizabeth and her husband Peter, both professors in Paris. Claude, a childhood friend and trombonist in a symphony orchestra, is also present. Vincent brings news from the prenatal examination of his and his wife Anna's unborn son. The name chosen by the soon-to-be parents strongly offends the others for many reasons. The dispute between the guests quickly escalates and before long the resurgence of old grudges and hidden secrets is unavoidable...

Does it have a happy ending? (spoiler-safe)

Bittersweet. It earns its ending, but not everyone gets what they want.

Cast and crew

Directed byMatthieu Delaporte, Alexandre de La Patellière
StarringPatrick Bruel, Valérie Benguigui, Charles Berling, Guillaume de Tonquédec, Judith El Zein, Françoise Fabian

More like What's in a Name

What's in a Name is on our French, Comedy on Tubi, Comedy on Kanopy and Comedy on Hoopla lists.

More like this feeling

Prompts we typed into CouchRot, and the lists that share its tags.

Lists with the same feel: Date night and Dry and witty.

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Uses the TMDB API; not endorsed or certified by TMDB. Intensity, content, tone and pace tags are CouchRot's own.