Hunting & Gathering (2007)

It was a summary of the book with more than one wrong dialogs and made the whole case feel somehow unimportant. After reading the book I burst into tears, after the film though I felt absolutely nothing. Don't watch it if you have read it for those who haven't read it could be a quite nice little film but actually it has nothing to do with the book's perfection. While in the book you get the feeling of warmth and affection between all the four characters and get the anger and dislike of Frank and Camille transforming to love gradually and in an interesting way the film doesn't offer you any of that,plus it doesn't contain many interesting details concerning the former lives of all the characters. Their feelings are changed and their characteristics are not that similar. I'd say that someone who hasn't read it may find it interesting but I found it rather disappointing.

Claude Berri, a director whose body of work shows some successes like "Jean de Florette" and "Manon des sources", is at it again with this new comedy targeted for the middle of the road French audience that will, undoubtedly, love his new offering. The comedy, which is mildly entertaining, could be considered a "date movie" because it offers a safe kind of entertainment with some pleasing faces that audiences will easily identify with.Such is the case of Audrey Tautou, an actress that was elevated to almost sainthood after her "Amelie" success. Ms. Tautou is an actress that will deliver under a firm direction, as she shows in here. Her Camille is not exactly one of the best things in her career, but suffice it to say, she is one of the main interest for watching this Gallic offering that might be optioned for a Hollywood remake in the not too distant future.Guillaume Canet, an actor who wowed us with his direction of "Ne le dis a personne", is seen as Franck, a young cook that takes a job in Paris and will become Camille's love interest. His flat mate is Philibert, an insecure soul that is trying to deal with his problems: he appears to be gay and he stutters badly. Philibert is played by Laurent Stocker, a member of then prestigious Comedy Francaise. The best thing in the film though, is veteran Francoise Bertin, who shows up as Franck's grandmother and steals the film. Ms. Bertin shows why she has been a glory of the French cinema for so long.

Vaguely interesting movie about life, but I felt it was made fascinating only due to the charisma of its two leads, the wonderful Guillaume Canet and the irrepressible Audrey Tautou. Had the leads been given to any other actor with considerable less charm, the movie would have sank. The character's central conflict is not firmly established, and watching the plot develop was equivalent to swimming in an open sea: direction-less. The happy ending was completely expected but heartwarming all the same; I just wished they had brought out the narrative motive more convincingly for me to feel like there was a point to this whole movie. The pacing was also a little too slow, and the nondescript dialog emphasized the lengthy duration of the movie.On a whole, I felt the director could have done a lot better with the movie by giving it greater focus, faster pacing, wittier dialog- there were quite a few moments in the film between Tautou and Canet's characters that could have done better with wittier dialog.A must-watch only for the actors' fans.

Claude Berri is a director who often seems on the verge of becoming a name outside France but somehow doesn't quite make it. His films are interesting - One Leaves, The Other Stays - to excellent - Lucie Aubrac with very little dross. Now he's taken a popular French novel and cast Audrey Tautou in a lead for which she's almost but not quite suited. She plays a gifted anorexic artist who has elected to work as a cleaner to her mother's disappointment. She becomes friendly with an eccentric aristocrat, Laurent Stocker, who lives in an immense apartment which he shares more or less unaccountably with a surly chef, Guillaume Canet. When he realizes that Camille (Tautou) is ill Philbert (Stocker) takes her to live in his apartment and nurses her back to health, this allows for the Benedict and Beatrice element between Tautou and womanizer Canet who also has an elderly grandmother in hospital. Against the odds the three form a bond and bring the grandmother into the menage when she leaves hospital and that's about it. Stocker, who generates all of the action tends to become low man on his own totem pole so that his own development as an actor who finds his own romance takes something of a back seat to Tautou and Canet. Never less than interesting it doesn't quite make it to the next level.