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Three Men and a Cradle

Three Men and a Cradle

Comedy · 1985

Three young men - Jacques, Pierre, and Michel - share an apartment in Paris, and have many girlfriends and parties. Once, during a party, a friend of Jacques' tells him he has a quite compromising package to deliver, and asks him if he can leave it discreetly at their place. Jacques agrees and, as he works as a steward, flies away for a one-month trip in Japan, telling Pierre and Michel about the package. Then, one of Jacques' former girlfriends drops a baby before their door, making Pierre and Michel believing it is the package they are waiting for. Their lives are then completely changed.

Movie details

Three Men and a Cradle

“In one split second, their lives went from party to potty.”

1985 Comedy 1h 46m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

6.6 / 10

4.3K votes

Rotten Tomatoes

72 %

Tomatometer

Metacritic

44 / 100

Metascore

TMDB

6.4 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

Three young men - Jacques, Pierre, and Michel - share an apartment in Paris, and have many girlfriends and parties. Once, during a party, a friend of Jacques' tells him he has a quite compromising package to deliver, and asks him if he can leave it discreetly at their place. Jacques agrees and, as he works as a steward, flies away for a one-month trip in Japan, telling Pierre and Michel about the package. Then, one of Jacques' former girlfriends drops a baby before their door, making Pierre and Michel believing it is the package they are waiting for. Their lives are then completely changed.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Three Men and a Cradle?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Coline Serreau

Written by

Coline Serreau

Roland Giraud

Roland Giraud

Pierre

Michel Boujenah

Michel Boujenah

Michel

André Dussollier

André Dussollier

Jacques

Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu

Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu

Sylvia

Dominique Lavanant

Dominique Lavanant

Ms. Rapons

Marthe Villalonga

Marthe Villalonga

Antoinette

Annick Alane

Annick Alane

Pharmacist

Court is in session

Put Three Men and a Cradle on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Arthouse Gremlin

“Its refusal to behave is the point.”

The strange choices create the kind of friction that follows you out of the theatre and into the argument.

The prosecution The Cool Ironist

“Oddness is not depth.”

A film can break every rule and still leave nothing behind but the memory of how hard it tried to be singular.