Kleine wahre Lügen

Beautiful movie with topics and acting FAR ABOVE what we are used to get from the States (Hollywood). Most people in this movie of Canet are in their best years of their lives (and above the average if looking at their attractiveness)and meet on a holiday in Les Landes, south of France. Beautiful back ground music and (no French) songs coupled to nice realistic scenes of people which enjoy their holidays, but also have many disputes with their "friends". Acting is phenomenal!!All scenes within 2 and half hours watching are realistic and recognizable to the observer. The movie shows that people need each other to be able to have sex and make joy. If someone fells ill or is badly wounded as in this movie Ludo, he (or she) can shake it, because people tend to pay attention only to those which can offer them good company, joy or sex. Still there are some very friendly en good characters in this movie which offer people their attention without asking something in return. And off course the women in this movie are very forgiving to their more egoistic male partners, as is the case in real life.......

I really enjoyed this movie. I liked the way it was filmed and directed. A good story, the script was tight, the actors very good and I engaged well in their characters. None of them were particularly likable either. I loved the sound track too, some great tunes. A shock for me was the ending, last 10 minutes. It appeared tacked on, as if the producer's wife said to him if you don't stick this on, no more amour for you Cherie. To me it almost ruined the movie, so turn it off about 10 minutes from the end, you'll know when. It would have got 10 stars from me but for that. But having said that if you're into Hollywood style huggy, tears and let it all out crap in slow mo with a wincingly appropriate tune, let it roll.

In Paris, a truck runs over the biker Ludo (Jean Dujardin) while he is driving home after spending the night snorting cocaine in a night-club. His long-time friends visit him in the hospital where he is in coma. The group is ready to travel on the annual vacation to the house of the successful businessman Max Cantara (François Cluzet) nearby Bordeaux and they decide to travel anyway and return when Ludo is better.

The physiotherapist Vincent Ribaud (Benoît Magimel), who is married with a child, tells to his fifteen year-old friend and godfather of his son, Max, that he wants to talk to him in private and they have lunch together in Max's restaurant. Vincent discloses to him that he has fallen in love with him. Max reacts to his words and Vincent asks him to keep the secret and forget their conversation.

Along the days, each friend has a little secret while Max is near nervous breakdown with Vincent. Until the day that Max's friend Jean-Louis (Joël Dupuch) tells the truth about their little lies and friendship.

"Les Petits Mouchoirs" is a French movie about friends' reunion in the same style of the American "The Big Chill" by Lawrence Kasdan or the British "Peter's Friends" by Kenneth Branagh. The movie has great performances but the prolix story is too long, a corny conclusion and deserved to be better and better for such wonderful cast. I liked this movie, but many sub-plots and the conclusion should have been shortened or deleted in the edition. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Até a Eternidade" ("Until the Eternity")

Let me start of by saying: Do not watch this because you want to see Jean Dujardin! Since he won the Oscar a couple of months ago, I'm pretty sure the demand on his movies has been increased. But this is not a Dujardin vehicle. While his character is pivotal to the whole story, he himself will not appear in it for a long period of time. I didn't count the minutes, but his screen presence does not warrant you to watch it for him alone.

Having said that, I do hope you watch it for what it is and all the other wonderful french actors that are in it. One of them being his "partner-in-crime" in his newest movie (L'Infidels). The story consists of every character having something inside them, wanting to burst out. Some are subtle about it and some are not. I think the character who is the loudest might feel to be the most annoying one, but the actor walks the fine line of still making him sympathetic enough for us to care. A really good drama, that will find it's audience.

I went to see Les Petits Mouchoirs yesterday and loved every minute of it. And since there are 154 minutes of it, there is a whole lot to love! Yes, this movie lasts for two and a half hours but it certainly did not feel long to me at all.

I thought that the acting was very natural and the people were very real: wow, they even looked like normal people (except for Marion Cotillard who is out-of-this-world-beautiful); a feeling that I feel oftentimes is missing in Hollywood movies where only the dork is normal (= ugly) and the rest of the actors are nothing but overly gorgeous. Obviously some out of the ordinary circumstances occur - otherwise there would be no movie, would there? nobody wants to watch me go to work and do my groceries for two and a half hours - but the way the situations were dealt with made me feel like Les Petit Mouchoirs was a depiction of a slice of life. I laughed out loud on several occasions, but at the end also had a wet sleeve from drying my tears. And in that respect I feel very differently from one previous poster who feels that the acting was weak in the dramatic parts of the movie; I thought the acting was superb.

I definitely recommend this movie, I thought it was highly entertaining and an evening well-spent.