"The Women on the 6th Floor" (The Guardian 06/07/12)

The Women on the 6^th Floor (12A) 106 mins **

Consider this the French equivalent of The Help: a retro crowdpleaser just mild and evasive enough to have become a massive hit on home turf. The starchy Sixties household of Fabrice Luchini and Sandrine Kiberlain unravels with the arrival of a new maid: moderately fiery Spaniard Natalia Verbeke, proposed postergirl for a newly integrated France. Luchini almost rescues it from its own complacency, but the script is equal parts blocked toilets and soft-boiled eggs.

The Women on the 6th Floor opens in selected cinemas from today.