L'arnacoeur

I'm not into French cinema because I don't usually understand the jokes in them, but I went to see Heartbreaker last night for a special preview. I was completely surprised because it charmed me in the first five minutes and from then on it was an almost non-stop laughing, chuckling, cackling audience around me. I loved the storyline and the characters. Alex Lippi is a guy hired to seduce women and break up couples. When he is hired to sort out Juliette (Vanessa Paradis) 10 days before her wedding, he pulls out all the tricks from the hat but she doesn't fall for anything. Interestingly, the thing that it was in French made this movie work much better than a Hollywood version. I thoroughly enjoyed it because it was funny, witty, fresh, minus the clichés and cheap jokes.

I'm no expert on rom-coms I have to say. I don't mind them particularly you understand but I just don't tend to gravitate towards them. This of course means that my views on Heartbreaker are not from the point-of-view of a connoisseur of this genre. And from this perspective I found it to be a perfectly pleasant way to spend an hour-and-a-half of my time. While the story's trajectory did seem a little predictable, the mixture of the romantic comedy with the 'heartbreaker' team seemed to be coming from a new angle. It allowed the film to mix in some action, gadgets and spy tactics into the romantic formula. And really it works quite well all-in-all.

I found the characters to be likable and amusing. I enjoyed the Monaco scenery. And I was interested enough with the various methods the heartbreaker team employed to pull off their scam. While the film doesn't really explain very well why Vanessa Paradis's father does not want her to marry her fiancé, and her subsequent romance with her bodyguard isn't really very believable, it doesn't ultimately matter very much as the film's tone is playful and a bit silly, so lack of believability isn't exactly a deal-breaker here. Overall, Heartbreaker has most probably been so successful as it's a rom-com that guys and girls can both enjoy.

The title means "The Heartbreaker." This charming and smoothly executed if far-fetched farce/action/rom-com about a team of professional marriage-derailers-for-hire has won rave reviews along with top box office in France (Allociné critical rating 3.0 (72). As has already been written in a US review, this is exactly the kind of thing Hollywood loves to copy but never manages to do with the required Gallic lightness and elegance. Actually there's a slight overload of added slapstick and violence this time; still, the action movies on such well-greased wheels and the actors perform with such dash, the movie never ceases to entertain.

The premise: Duris and his sister (Julie Ferrier) and her husband (François Damiens) run an outfit specializing in breaking up impending weddings by showing the bride that her fiancé isn't as desirable a match as Duris. Duris, AKA Alex, withdraws with a touching story about how he's too heartbroken to be the one. Usually a rich father employs the team to perform this scam. Such is the case when Vanessa Paridis is about to marry Jonathan, a wealthy young Englishman (Andrew Lincoln). The job goes against Duris' basic rule never to break up a match when the couple is genuinely in love with each other -- as these two are. Also the deadline to stop the wedding is impossibly short. But the team takes it on nonetheless because of a major debt. Gangsters are threatening to do huge damage to Duris if he doesn't pay up very quickly.

Two gaps in the writing: it's not entirely clear why Paridis' father is so keen on destroying this match; and the team's elaborate high-tech methods are impossibly clever and complicated. However none of this is meant to be taken seriously. Much of the fun is in the ingenious tricks the team uses to follow Paradis' movements and give Duris opportunities to seduce her -- an outcome which she stubbornly resists till the very last moment. And then when she gives in, of course, he breaks another of his cardinal rules and falls in love with her; but it's all resolved in a lighthearted fashion.

A fun watch with definite US release potential, and in fact a US release is coming. Seen in Paris in April 2010 and again in a preview in NYC, when it seemed a little longer than it needed to be (there is a lot of repetition). But Duris' deftness as a comic actor, his physicality in the dancing bits, Paridis' charm and elegance, and François Damiens' sympathetic personality hold up and indeed inspire awe and admiration on repeat viewings.

HEARTBREAKER ('L'ARNACOEUR') is a delightful bit of French fluff, created as only the French know how. There are 'quotes' from certain films and songs that mix the two main characters together and add to the meringue of the farce. Based on a light story by Laurent Zeitoun, Jeremy Doner, and Yhan Gromb and directed with a fine sense of comic timing by Pascal Chaumeil, this is one of those examples of the farces the French do so well.

Alex Lipp (Romain Duris), his sister Mélanie (Julie Ferrier) and her husband Marc (François Damiens) run a little business: they coordinate efforts to breakup undesired relationships for pay. After a few examples of how the trio works its magic, an assignment takes them to Monaco where they are hired to stop the marriage between Juliette Van Der Becq (Vanessa Paradis) and her wealthy humanitarian fiancé Jonathan Alcott (Andrew Lincoln) - in 10 days time! Alex is avoiding previous client debts represented by a bodyguard Goran (Jean-Marie Paris) but plunges into the formula courtship destruction mode with Juliette; the difference this time is that Juliette seems happily ensconced in the marriage plans and has little time for Alex's plans. But of course through the period of time allotted, Juliette finds qualities in Alex that are missing from her 'perfect' fiancé and Alex breaks his cardinal rule and falls in love with his marked client Juliette. The manner in which the story is resolved is clever and entertaining and heartwarming.

This may not be a great movie but it is a well-acted refreshing little romp to cleanse the palette! In French and English with subtitles. Grady Harp, November 10

This is a very good romantic comedy - probably the best French rom-com since Hors De Prix (Which is my favourite French comedy of the decade) - oodles of fun, high living, and then something unexpected - lots and lots of heart.

We really enjoyed L'arnacoeur, sure it's unrealistic and yes it follows it's genre, but those are two reasons why it's great to watch - it is laugh out loud funny and smarter than it lets on - and the two leads work well together to produce a French comedy with wit, farce, and l'amour.

Compared to most rom-coms (Boy finds girl, loses girl, finds girl again) this is a league above, it's not cutesy, though it is over polished in places, but the plotting is smart, the leads have chemistry, and above all it about finding love and I, for one, give it a massive two thumbs up.