Misleadingly marketed as a comedy, _Première Année_ (_The Freshmen_) is the study of two first-year med students who become friends. One is passionate about medicine yet does poorly on tests, the other is enrolled only to win his father's love but has a knack when it comes to exams.

The premise is less interesting than the film, which examines the ins and outs of a student's first year at a prestigious Parisian medical school. We feel the sense of camaraderie and competition necessary to attain one of the 230 available places for the second year, where there are more than 1000 students and the places are attributed based on exam results.

The boys' relationship rests within the realm of cliché (though the talented young actors help us overcome this), but the ending is so disappointing that it makes the movie go down like medicine: good for the heart but ruined by a terrible aftertaste.