Mes amis, mes amours (2008)

Two divorced friends, Mathias and Antoine, have had it with their life in Paris. When Mathias is fired from the bookshop where he works, he does not hesitate in heeding Antoine about a better life in London. What's more, Antoine already has a house in Frog Alley, the neighborhood where a lot of French live. Mathias' former wife Valentine will let him live in the house next door to his friend so he can supervise his daughter Emilie.Mathias buys an old fashioned book store catering to the French community. Antoine, an architect suggests they could combine both living areas of the two houses, where they would spend most of the time, but the upstairs will be only for each of the men and their son, or daughter. Since all it involves is knocking the dividing wall between the houses, Mathias goes into action before the actual permits arrive. Before all the work is completed, Antoine insists in drawing up a chart with 10 rules about how to cohabit the bigger space.Going to Emilie's school one day, Mathias, who is running late, meets a woman he has seen at his shop before. In the school yard there is a boy on a tree branch that is afraid to come down. Mathias goes to his rescue, but his fear of heights prevents him to do a good deed, only to be rescued by Audrey. Before Mathias realizes, he falls in love with the lovely Audrey. Not being able to take her to his house, they resort to meeting at a hotel. Frog Alley is dotted with an assortment of characters that find a common ground in their new adopted city. Antoine reasons this London quarter is like Paris, but without Parisians. When things are going great between Mathias and Audrey, his former wife shows up unexpectedly. Audrey who had a problem having been lied in another relationship casually comes upon the former couple and believes Mathias had lied. A pleasant sunny comedy by Lorraine Levy who adapted her brother's Marc novel with Phillippe Guez. Ms. Levy gave the production a glossy look as it almost feels like a Hollywood film, with a French point of view. The casting is what made the film even better. Vincent Lindon who is a welcome figure in any picture, plays a disarming Mathias. He is equally matched by Pascal Elbe, seen as Antoine. The excellent Virginie Ledoyen is Audrey. Florence Foresti, Mar Sodupe, and the great Bernadette Lafont are seen in supporting roles. Garance Le Guillermic, a charming young actress that made a splash in "L'Herisson" is on hand to play Emilie.

I went to see this film with three friends as we're all studying French, and thought it would be a fun little excursion. I'm glad I agreed to go, because it was certainly an evening well spent. There were some truly great one-liners, but the comedy didn't stop there - the situations that the characters found themselves in, although funny, were not unbelievable, and that made it all the more amusing. The characters were very well fleshed out, a nice contrast to many of the films nowadays in which the characters are bare bones, and one really empathised with each character. This film will make you laugh, think, and even cry a little - and it definitely improved my French!

Not a bad film: it has one or two funny moments, but there are quite a few dull scenes which could easily have been cut, and I did find myself looking at my watch a few times to see how long was left. Fortunately, at 99 minutes, it isn't long.There are a couple things wrong though: the quaint-looking London on view here is populated entirely, it seems, by French speakers (including removal men, teachers and builders.) The only interaction with an English speaking person is a scene where one of the characters gets his knuckles rapped by a policeman for daydreaming at traffic lights. The other problem is the plausibility of the relationship between Mathias (Vincent Lindon), a balding middle aged-man and beautiful young Audrey (Virginie Ledoyen). It is hard to see how she could fall for him, (his defining characteristic appears to be a fear of heights). It is not so difficult, however, to see how he might fall for her.I can't really recommend this- there are so many other romantic comedies out there which are better.

Okay, you're a producer and I'm pitching to you: There's these two guys, coming up to middle-age, each has kids and is separated/divorced. They decide to share a house/apartment. That's just about where you'd stop me because 1) I'm no Neil Simon and 2) Jack Lemon and Walter Matthau are not available. Pity you stopped me because if you hadn't I could have said that this is different because instead of what are admittedly great one-lines this scenario has warmth, charm and romance in any order you like. Vincent Lindon and Pascal Elbe (no slouch as a writer himself) are inch-perfect as the leads and Bernadette Lafont atones for all those new wavelet pretentious tosh with which she became associated and contributes a wonderful supporting role as the French Restaurant owner cum friend of the principals. In France currently there are three twenty/thirty -something actresses working regularly and this movie has the best of them which means it's not sluttish Sagnier (Ludo), twee Tautou (Audrey) but lovely Ledoyen (Ginny) and if at 31 she is a tad young for Lindon, now in his fiftieth year, I'm not complaining and he sure as hell isn't. With hindsight it may be the wrong time - two French students have just been horribly murdered here - to release a movie about the joy to be found for expat French in 'frog alley' (the area of South Kensington where they tend to pitch their tents) and maybe they should have thought twice about having a Bookshop specialising in French books for French people called The French Bookshop. There are, as it happens, two French Bookshops in South Kensington and both, not unnaturally have French titles - would you, for example, expect to see in Paris a shop called Libraire Anglais. Apart from minor cavils of this sort this is definitely out of the right bottle and is time well spent.