ScreenWize

Billed as a sexy and charming romantic comedy, Director Pierre Salvadori backs himself into a corner with this French film by severely restraining the comedy, the sexiness and the romance. What’s left are a few moments of charm, fleshed out with plenty of lingering shots of Audrey Tatou and Gad Elmaleh as they gaze endlessly at each other in the foyers and bedrooms of expensive hotels on the Cote D’Azur.

Jean (Gad Elmaleh) is a waiter working late nights in an elegant cocktail bar in an exclusive five-star hotel. He is asleep on the job when Irene (Audrey Tatou) comes in for a nightcap and an excuse to escape her latest ageing sugar daddy. Believing Jean to be one of the jet-setting millionaires that she relies upon to fund her excessively lavish life-style, she makes a move on him. He is too shy and too stricken to tell her the truth, and goes along with the charade. They both make the most of the mistaken identity until Irene finds out that his annual disposable income would hardly cover her weekly clothing needs, and she leaves in disgust. But the love-struck Jean is compelled to follow her to her next gold-digging destination – the French Riviera. Here, Jean enters her world as a gigolo kept by a wealthy widow, with Irene providing him as many lessons in deception and flattery as the two lovers can squeeze in between their busy days shopping and lying by the pool.

It’s a vacuous story told, yes, with charm - but rather ponderously, and with no thought to the moral world being portrayed. Salvadori’s script is superficial and short on story. Not much actually happens, which would be fine if we were watching Jean & Irene fall deeply enough in love with each other to throw away all that they have. But Elmaleh (so much more complex and interesting in The Valet) is far too shy and inert to be of interest, and Tatou’s considerable acting talents (Amelie, Dirty Pretty Things) are wasted as she becomes little more than a clotheshorse. There are a few moments of cute humour and if you just want to sit back and leisurely watch beautiful wealthy people hanging out in expensive hotels there maybe something here for you.

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Filed Under: Reviews by Simon