Un plan parfait

Lately the French have a kind of patent on good comedies. Daniel Boon is very good in this role, we know him of Welcome to the North or Nothing to Declare and also in this movie he is superb. In Un Plan Parfait we have although some really absurd situations which let you laugh loud out. They are never disturbing and it is one of those movies that you laugh quite a lot, of course if you like the Daniel Boon movies. The 2 actors do the part of the beauty and the beast and the romance is total. I had a real good time with this movie and left the theater with a smile on my face and with a good feeling. The subject is absurd and the situations as well, so don't expect any reality in it. The jokes have a good setup and are not boring at all. Like I already said, the French have a good sense of humor, even when the movies have different targets like this one or the Intouchable. This movie cannot be compared although with the Intouchable due to the subject and contents of the Intouchable, which is quite serious and subtle.

In Paris, Corinne "Coco" (Alice Pol) brings her chief Valérie (Laure Calamy) to spend the Christmas Eve with her family. Valérie is depressed since she is newly divorced and Coco decides to tell the story of her sister Isabelle (Diane Kruger) to Valérie to cheer her up. Isabelle is a dentist that has been living with and working in the same office of her boyfriend Pierre (Robert Plagnol) for ten years. When they decide to get married, Isabelle and Coco are worried about the family curse that every first marriage ends in divorce. Isabelle and Coco arrange a marriage for Isabelle with a student in Copenhagen so that she can immediately divorce to marry Pierre to live happily ever after.

In the flight, Isabelle meets the inconvenient free-spirited tourism columnist Jean-Yves (Dany Boon) that is traveling to Kenya. When the student does not show up, Isabelle decides to travel to Kenya to marry Jean-Yves. She has the chance when they travel to visit a Masai people when they get married. Isabelle returns to Paris and when she goes to schedule her wedding with Pierre, she discovers that Jean-Yves has registered his Masai wedding certificate in Paris. Now Isabelle travels to Moscow expecting to force Jean-Yves to sign the divorce papers. Will she succeed in her intent?

"Un plan parfait" is a charming movie with a silly premise. The idea of the family curse and the attitude of a clever woman like Isabelle traveling to Denmark first and Kenya later to get married and a quick divorce after is ridiculous. But Diane Kruger is a gorgeous, talented and charming actress and her chemistry with Dany Boon makes the movie work despite the premise. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "Um Plano Perfeito" ("A Perfect Plan")

Dany Boon is a genius.

This is a great romantic comedy, the framing device is brilliant and surprising, the narration spotless, the acting first-rate, the comedy: funny!

The success is that while drawing from the finest of comedies in cinema history : Capra (It Happened One Night) Lubitsch (Ninotchka) Sturges (The Lady Eve) Ephron (When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle) this brings new breath to a well-worn genre.

An example off the top of my head is the way in which Diane Kruger struggles to seduce Boon and the dose of pragmatic realism she brings to this difficult task, which makes her all the more sympathetic and funny. She is miles away from Claudette Colbert in The Palm Beach Story, who so easily puts her adventuress plans into action, almost purring with pleasure.

Yes, this film is French but you can still enjoy it even if sound comes out of the actors mouths when they speak and it isn't English but French, I promise you it is a million miles from stereotypical French cinema, this deserves an international audience! (got that off my chest)

This is entertainment, get it while it's hot! (no there isn't any explicit sex in it and no existentialism either, a truly different French film)

The two main actors make a difference in this delightful romantic comedy, Dany Boon revealing once again his comic verve and the algid Diane Kruger proving an unsuspected comic side, and supporting the role of Boon very effectively. The story may lack some cohesion , being more a sequence of isolated funny moments, rather than a development of a story, although the flashback storytelling tries to give unity to the plot. The characters, especially Isabelle, are little developed and change abruptly without much coherence. However, some truly comic moments are to be appreciated and these are the best moments and the set piece of the picture, which can offer two hours of entertainment, together with some exotic charm of its settings.

A pretty silly romantic comedy, but I could not stop smiling.... and everyone just try to get your eyes off Diane Krüger in this one. This is a cinematic experience how I guess it used to be before Computers took over. Highly recommended.