Les émotifs anonymes

If you like to come out of the theatre smiling and nodding to your fellow audience in a manner that says "that was a lovely bit of nonsense and all's well with the world" then Romantics Anonymous is the perfect antidote to the Hollywood flash, CGT and emptiness.

We all know what the outcome will be more or less from the start but the journey is the thing and for the gentlemen among us there is the beauty of Isabelle Carre to enjoy on the journey. Looking at the other reviews I haven't seen any reference to the director's tip of the hat to Julie Andrews and The Sound of Music in the scene where Angelique dances down the shopping arcade with her samples suitcase.

A little gem. Go and see it. You won't be disappointed.

ROMANTICS ANONYMOUS (Les émotifs anonymes) is a wonder bit of French fluff that may seem like a little love story on the surface, but has a lot to say about our current state of relationships. Written (with Philippe Blasband) and directed by Jean-Pierre Améris this little film takes advantage of the fine comedic talents of the two stars and brings a supporting cast of of actors to the table who demonstrate how fine cameo roles can be polished.

Angélique Delange (the perky, multitalented Isabelle Carré) cannot cope with relating to people: she is a shy young student in a chocolate class taught by M. Mercier (Claude Aufaure) who rises to the top of her class as a chocolatier winning employment in the finest chocolate business in France when suddenly M. Mercier dies. Angélique is without a job and is terrified of interviewing (she belongs to a group therapy session called Romantics Anonymous where the group shares their flaws in relating to people. She sees and interview slot for a candy business owned by Jean-René Van Den Hugde (Benoît Poelvoorde) - a man who is terrified of women as he works through sessions with his therapist (Stéphan Wojtowicz). Angélique's interview goes well and she is hired on the spot - as a sales rep!

Through a series of trial and error Angélique wins the friendship of the small staff (Lorella Cravotta, Lise Lamétrie, Swann Arlaud, and Pierre Niney) who understand the business is going bankrupt and together they stage a lessons on chocolate making that results is the staff learning all the secrets for the now defunct Mercier Chocolates. Angélique and Jean- René seem to find an attraction to each other but their emotional timidity prevents them from connecting until a big break comes: the business is chosen to attend the chocolate prize competition and in the midst of the trip the two seem to overcome their handicaps. But the future isn't assured until Jean-René attends Angélique's group therapy session, a place where they both must confront their feelings, and from there on the film dashes into a fun French farce.

The film is in French with English subtitles and comes off like an uncorked bottle of fine champagne. It is a fun, light, romantic little takeoff on how so many people must join group therapy just to relate to each other. It bubbles!

Grady Harp

This is a French film about two people in a small chocolate factory, the owner and employee. Both people are pretty dysfunctional emotionally, but have a common love of creating great chocolates. They are so afraid of even making eye contact. We all can identify with their basic shyness but it becomes alternately amusing and heartbreaking taken to the extreme by both these characters. The supporting cast of vendors and fellow chocolatiers help round out the fairly limited leads, representing us - how average people like us would react in this situation.

French locations and trappings gave an old world exotic feel to the story too. When people wonder why "they don't make movies like they used to", realize that sometimes they do: This film is no different than a William Powell/Kay Francis 80 minute romantic comedy, appealing to the same audience.

Les Émotifs Anonymes is a wonderful film: very Fench and truly touching and genuinely funny, with just the right amount of romance versus life and love and chocolate.

The two protagonists are two chronically emotional stunted personalities - and you just know they are made for each other - but how they get there is, like the very best of French comedy, imaginative, a little chaotic, somewhat mixed-up, but always well meant.

This is a film I can warmly recommend as one of the best French romantic comedies of recent memories - it has touches of Amélie and will appeal to a wide audience - it beautifully shot and lit, and all in all, the script is witty, the situations are funny without being ludicrous or cringeworthy, and above all, this is a charming and truly romantic film, without saccharine, but definitely, with a bitter sweetness of its own.

Jean-Pierre Améris, a good but somewhat overlooked French director, had hitherto specialized in harsh dramas (such as the intriguing 'Les aveux de l'innocent" (1996), in which an ordinary man declares he has committed a crime whereas he is innocent, or the profound "C'est la vie" (2001), a haunting meditation about life and death). For the first time, with "Les émotifs associés" (2010), Améris has opted for a lighter tone, ... without indulging in superficiality for all that. His new effort marks in fact an interesting evolution in Jean-Pierre Améris's way to address his subjects. At ease with the problems of others (his characters), the writer-director has now decided to examine a question that concerns his own self and to do it with optimism.

For if there is a subject that Jean-Pierre Améris knows like the back of his hand it is hyper emotionality. A highly emotional person himself since he was a child, Améris has however been able to give a film crew orders, to guide them and to impose himself on them, a thing an overly timid creature would never dream of ever managing to do. Having now overcome his handicap (at least to some extent as he occasionally still finds it hard to make a decision or deal with strangers), the director has undertaken to share his experience with his audiences and help the victims of hyper emotionality to have a better life.

And what better way to achieve this goal than resorting to the romantic comedy genre? For sure, provided a filmmaker avoids falling into the trap of over-sentimentality, he or she will make an audience susceptible to the attraction of one character to the other and take advantage of this feeling of empathy to instill his message in the complicit viewers. What Jean-Pierre Améris needed first was two amiable spokespersons to pass on his message and, with the help of his co-writer Philippe Blasband, he has given life to an engaging couple, consisting of Jean-René, the owner of a small chocolate factory who has never overcome his mental blocks and has remained single despite his deep love for women, and Angélique, probably the best chocolate maker alive, but who, for exactly the same reasons, has failed to make a name for herself and to find the genial soul. Mission accomplished, as the two characters are well delineated and remarkably interpreted by Benoît Poelvoorde and Isabelle Carré.

This established, all the suspense will lie in the fact that though Angélique and Jean-René share a common passion for chocolate and are drawn to each other, the fear of giving a bad image of themselves and of taking the first step, is a source of misunderstanding and tends to estrange them. Will there be a happy ending? Nothing is less certain...

Through this situation and these two characters, Jean-Pierre Améris describes, with the light touch allowed by comedy, the nightmare experienced by those people who are so scared of life that they miss out on it, preferring the safety of doing nothing over the risks of taking action. And not taking action does not only bring frustration to the people concerned , it is also misleading to others. Deep inside themselves neither is Jean-René this gruff unpleasant boss nor Angélique this slightly retarded little girl. They are much better persons and deserve better. "Les émotifs anonymes" will thus recount Angélique and Jean René's desperate efforts to become a couple on the one hand and to become who they are on the other, describing the various means they use to this end (consulting a behavioral psychologist, doing exercises to try to ACT even if the odds seem impossible, using auto suggestion, trying to touch someone, to invite a person to the restaurant, joining a mutual aid movement such as the "Emotifs Anonymes" (hence the title)...

A useful film for the overly timid, an entertaining and charming one for the more extrovert, "Les émotifs anonymes" is played to perfection by the ever delightful and fresh Isabelle Carré and cast- against-type Benoît Poelvoorde. There is such a chemistry between the two on-screen partners that you never doubt for a single moment that the princess can be infatuated with a bullfrog!

A comedy with a heart, "Les émotifs anonymes" contains several scenes to remember : the disaster dinner at the restaurant, Jean-René singing 'Dark Eyes' to Angélique at the hotel, Jean-René's declaration of love to Angélique during an "Emotifs Anonymes" meeting.

Don't be shy. Go and see it. Your audacity will be rewarded!