Sweeter than a Portuguese tart, THE GILDED CAGE offers early Christmas jollies in a comedy as jaunty as the run from Paris to Lisbon.

Ex pat Portuguese, Maria and Jose have been living and working in Paris for thirty years. Their children are born and bred Parisians and they have an extended family courtesy of Maria’s  sister and her husband, and they are stalwarts of the sizable Portuguese  community within the French capital.

They live in the ground floor dwelling of a chic apartment building where Maria is concierge and Jose moonlights as handyman. His day job is foreman with a construction company.

When the couple receive news of a property inheritance back in Portugal, a proviso of which they come back and live there, their long held dreams of return collide with the reality of thirty years of formative history.

The conflict causes a conspiracy among all stakeholders – the beneficiaries try to keep it secret but loose lips cause leaks and employers start to trowel on the stay cement plastering over the years of being taken for granted.

The duplicity from family cause cracks and fissures in the facia – feigned fatal maladies, unplanned pregnancies, filial infidelity, – and the couples’ world is startlingly turned upside down.

Writer director Ruben Alves delivers a gild edged, guilt etched comedy that hits all the high notes of humour and humanity.

Rita Blanco and Joaquim de Almeida are terrific as Maria and Jose, a couple who have given generous and unstinting service to their family and employers and whose faded dream quite quickly becomes a comedic nightmare.

They lead an entertaining ensemble of actors, with particularly robust performances from  Jacquline Carado as Lourdes, Maria’s buxom and ambitious sister, and Chantal Lauby as Jose’s boss’ ditzy wife, Solange.

With gorgeous Paris locations and a Portuguese payoff, THE GILDED CAGE is a terrific Christmas bon bon