FILMBRATS - REVIEWS

French horn player David just moved to Paris and is in need of a place to stay. He serendipitously runs into Anne when placing an ad for his teaching services. She offers him a chance to stay with her friend, which is soon revealed to be her. He accepts and they quickly become close friends. In the meantime, David finds himself falling for Julia, one of his young students, and comes to Anne for advice. However, her advice backfires when during the weekend excursion between David and Julia, a man named Julien enters the picture. Then….

If ever there were a French Woody Allen, it would be writer/director Emmanuel Mouret. And I’m talking about good Woody Allen, too. The story may not be as original, seeing as how it is a rather ordinary, yet well-executed screwball romantic comedy, but the fumbling awkward and charming delivery of Mouret (who plays David) is extremely reminiscent. The style of humor also works in the same vein. Sure, a lot of the humor comes from the stupidity of the characters (meaning smart people that make horrible decisions), but much of it also comes from the awkwardness and various tensions between the four as well as some clever lines.

I wouldn’t really call the points of conflict misadventures, because they weren’t zany and unpredictable enough. Instead we see these very sweet people having to deal with an unfortunate series of unusual, but completely understandable (and sometimes seemingly unavoidable) situations. The film perfectly captures the silly quirky charm of the hopeless romantic, as well as their plight. Whether it’s the goofy lovelorn (sometimes lusting) David; the confusingly flirty roommate Anne; the overly quiet doe-eyed Julia; or the suave player Julien, you always get the sense that they are totally sincere and never really mean any harm. That’s a great characteristic to see in a movie – four equally likable and relatable characters. You find yourself rooting for any or all of them at once. That sort of means that anyway the film ends will not only make sense, but be satisfying.

I found myself surprisingly amused at the picture. Although it is funny, thanks in large part to Mouret’s great near improvisational comic delivery and writing, I found the film to be more sweet than humorous most of the time. Sometimes that can be a kiss of death for a comedic picture, but here it actually works to its full advantage. Every aspect of the picture I thought would fall flat ended up working. The montage of “fun” was pretty lame until they turned it around at the very end. The cartoony score is helped greatly by the orchestral elements. The result of it all is a fantastic simple story that just happens to be one of the best romantic comedies I’ve seen in years.

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