Les Anges gardiens

Directed by Jean-Marie Poiré, who co-wrote the screenplay with Christian Clavier, the 1995 French action comedy Les Anges gardiens pairs two utterly mismatched men whose guardian angels quietly nudge their fates together. Antoine Carco (Gérard Depardieu) is a selfish former crook who agrees to travel to Hong Kong and escort home the orphaned son of a trafficking friend, but what he really wants are the roughly 15 million dollars in stolen treasury bonds the boy's father lifted from the Chinese triads. His reluctant companion is Father Hervé Tarain (Christian Clavier), a kind-hearted and clumsy priest flying back from an educational program with a group of troubled French youngsters. Along the turbulent trip from Hong Kong to Paris, both men are forced to confront their consciences. Shot between the director's two Visitor films, it was the most expensive French production of 1995 and finished second at the domestic box office with over 5.7 million admissions.