De vrais mensonges

Director Pierre Salvadori reunites with actress Audrey Tautou from their earlier collaboration Priceless, but don't get your hopes up too high that Beautiful Lies would be a solid enough follow up especially if you enjoyed their earlier film on how some would fake a relationship or trade love for money. Salvadori continues with the offbeat romantic comedy premise involving make believe with this film, but alas it came through as a rather predictable affair.

It's hard to sustain a relationship based on a lie, and things get a lot complicated here when lies become the foundations on which romantic relationships, favours and that between parent and child get all built upon, where an innocently anonymous letter from a hair salon handyman Jean (Sami Bouajila) to his boss Emelie (Audrey Tautou) the salon co-owner, gets tossed aside by the latter since she obviously paid no heed to it, only for that attention to be retracted when she realized that her mom Maddy (Nathalie Baye) is due for a romantic lift from her prolonged sustained depression since her husband Marc (Paul Morgan) left her for someone younger and nubile to be his artistic muse.

Thus begins a series of contrived misunderstandings and lies built upon lies with the constant letter writings from Emelie posing as an anonymous admirer, only for her ruse to be unintentionally skewed way off the mark when Maddy thinks it is indeed Jean who has hidden feelings for her, no thanks to an errant Jean had to run which took him to dropping off the letter. Naturally this follows plenty of hidden meanings and Emelie trying to come between the two for fear of an expose, guiding this film to some laughable light hearted moments.

But it turned into a chore with Emelie having to beg a reluctant Jean to continue a charade to entertain her mother for fear of her mental and emotional state, with Emelie none the wiser that Jean was actually the originator of the letter to her declaring his love from afar. Oh the pain involved to help a loved one in her time of need, yet having to compromise one's principles to act out a lie, and worse, to lead a senior citizen on in some hope of a second wind of romance. It may sound like a fun premise, but trust me, it certainly was a chore to the character of Jean, and somehow this translated to the whole narrative giving you that sinking feeling of being unable to bail out from something forced upon, and unpleasant.

Beautiful Lies got condemned in a certain way with a whole host of unlikeable ones. Emelie begins with a good intent, but in efforts to save her own skin from embarrassment and to keep her madcap idea under reins, she turns into some crazy control freak who frequently lies, manipulating Jean and of course causing undue strain with her staff at work. Manipulative and scheming, Audrey Tautou does pull this one off to a certain degree, until it became repetitive no thanks to Emelie's constant exasperation. Jean also went into an about turn with his descend into probably one of the biggest cinematic jerks as well, one without courage to walk out of a morally compromising position, and assisting an ugly (on the inside) woman with her grand scheme. Only perhaps Nathalie Baye's portrayal as the emotionally helpless mom brought about some light to the film, if not for the last few scenes of the film to really show her off as an opportunist with no qualms to turn tables.

Without characters you genuinely feel for and a narrative that was in a hurry to conclude with a convenient ending sticking out like a sore thumb, one too perfect in many ways to sweep all development under the carpet, Beautiful Lies is extremely far from beautiful, and you would probably be better off watching any of Tautou's earlier works. Certainly not one of her best roles to date, stuck in a story based on a joke that had gone too far it isn't interesting.

Set in a world of perpetual sunshine in the south of France, BEAUTIFUL LIES (DE VRAIS MENSONGES) has a plot with distinct echoes of CYRANO DE BERGERAC. Former UNESCO translator Jean (Sami Bouajila), now working in a hairdressing salon, writes an anonymous love-letter to owner Emilie (Audrey Tautou). Although not knowing who the author is, Emilie convinces her mother Maddy (Nathalie Baye) that the letter has been written for her mother's benefit: Emilie subsequently writes two more anonymous love-letters for her mother, pretending that they have come from the same author as the first letter. Further complications ensue, but the story ends happily enough.

Pierre Salvadori's film looks at the gulf separating words from meanings: what the characters say - either in written or spoken discourse - and what they actually mean are often two different things. This is especially true of Emilie, who convinces herself that she is acting in her mother's best interests, but ends up being utterly self-absorbed. Her narcissistic nature is summed up by the frequency of shots where she sits in her office, a bottle of vodka in hand, trying to pen new love-letters for her mother. Emilie comes across as a basically unattractive person; in the pre-credit sequence she is shown cutting the fringe off one of her customer's (Cécile Boland's) hair, even though the customer specifically insists otherwise.

By comparison, Maddy is meant to be represented as an innocent victim - unable to come to terms with her ex-husband's (Daniel Duval's) decision to leave her for a younger woman, her life is in pieces, as she sits on the sofa in a nightdress. The prospect of a younger man falling in love with her gives her renewed energy, so much so that, even when Emilie tells her the truth, Maddy still invites Jean round for a romantic dinner for two. But here's the rub - at the end of the evening she decides to bed Jean, while being perfectly aware of his feelings for Emilie. We are left to wonder why: is Maddy taking revenge on her daughter, or is she at heart as self-interested as Emilie?

For the first four-fifths of DE VRAIS MENSONGES, director Salvadori creates a light-as-gossamer romantic comedy with serious undertones in which gesture assumes as much significance as word. The shot/reverse shot sequences involving Emilie and Jean, where the two of them try their best not to disclose their true feelings for one another, are beautifully handled, as is the sequence where Emilie's tongue-tied employee Paulette (Judith Chemla) tries her best to explain something to Emilie while not looking her in the eye. The ending, however, is a bit of a cop-out - although order is restored, we are left to ponder the (lack of) moral scruples influencing the characters' behavior, even that of Jean. One wonders precisely how women are viewed in this apparently liberal society.

This film is about a salon owner who uses a desperately wants her mother to get over her father falling in love with someone 20 years younger. She writes an anonymous love letter to cheer her mother up, with disastrous results.

Throughout the film, "Beautiful Lies" maintains an upbeat and lovable atmosphere. The deceits of beautiful intentions are so beautiful to watch. Emilie is beautiful, charming and mischievous, while Jacques is reserved, intellectual and charming. The mother is vibrant and attractive when her spirits are lifted up. The film is full of love, not just romantic love, but love for friends, acquaintances and parents too. And it is funny as well!

What could the director of a romantic comedy in 2010 wish more than to have in the cast Nathalie Baye and Audrey Tautou in the roles of a mother and a daughter entangled in a love intrigue that has as its object (or the third tip of the triangle if you want) the same man? Film director Pierre Salvadori (also the co-author of the script) had this opportunity and the result did not live up to my expectations. 'De vrais mensonges' (meaning 'True Lies' although the title chosen for the English version is 'Beautiful Lies', probably to avoid the conflict with the American 'True Lies' featuring Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis) manages to be just an acceptable summer comedy in which the best thing is the presence of the two actresses, still leaving the feeling that they are used below their exceptional potential.

The biggest problem of Audrey Tautou's career may be the fact that she realized so early a role unique in beauty and emotion as 'Amélie'. The result was that the scenarios offered later, and sometimes the directions, also tried to emulate that success. To add to the confusion (maybe intentionally) in 'De vrais mensonges' the heroine is called ... Emilie, kind of an Amelie ten years later who tries to do exactly what Amelie did, that is to make everyone around her happy and first of all her mother (Nathalie Baye) traumatized by the fact that her husband (Emilie's father) had left her for a much younger woman. However, Emily neglects herself, including her own feelings. When in the beauty salon she owns she hires a maintenance man who turns out to be much more than that and who secretly falls in love with her, the premises are ripe for a comedy of situations having at the center a triangle of insecure lovers who send each other anonymous letters, lie to each other, suffer and deceive those around them, but especially lie to and deceive themselves.

Acting is up to the expectations. Audrey Tautou continues to mesmerize us with her unique eyes and tangles in the complications created by her own kindness, while Nathalie Baye adds to her record another role as a mature woman who struggles with courage and partial success with age, keeping her beauty and sex appeal. The triangle is completed by Sami Bouajila in the role of Jean, the romantic electrician who also turns out to be a polyglot and the owner of an impressive library. However, the main problem of the film is the schematic approach and the simplistic comic of situations. The idea of the epistolary misunderstanding is an excellent starting point, but what follows does not exceed the level of a television sitcom, and actually not a very successful one. what a pity. This movie could have been much more interesting than it came out.

Is it a coincidence that Ms. Tautou is named Émilie (sounds like Amélie)? Is it a coincidence that she has the same gamin-tomboy look with her cropped hair as Amelie? Somehow I think it is intentional.

Alas, where the similarities to Amélie are evident they are the only thing they have in common. Unfortunately one similarity that is glaringly missing is the sheer energy of Ms. Tautou's' former director and mentor, Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Whereas Jeunet is like a brightly illuminated comet hurtling through the sky, Pierre Salvadori's style is more akin to a slow moving iceberg. And that is what the film is - an iceberg.

Nearly all good romantic comedies have some essential ingredients: energy, dynamism, warmth, identifiable characters, quick-fire humour and empathy - think Bridget Jones, Notting Hill et al,. Sadly none of these ingredients are present. Not even the exceptional Nathalie Baye is able to drag this film from the doldrums. It is nothing more than a montage of scenes where very little happens or engages the viewer. Clearly Sami Bouajila did his best but his forte is serious drama and that's where he should stay.

The one shining light in the film is Judith Chemla. With her very expressive face and mannerisms she has a promising future.

It is quite sad that Ms. Tautou has concentrated on 'glamour' films since leaving Jeunet - "Coco Before Channel", "Priceless". At heart she is an exceptional comedy actor. Regretfully Salvadori is not the director who can direct and showcase her talents. Unless she wants to stay on the periphery of French cinema Ms. Tautou needs to ask herself how best can she deploy her many talents.