Emotivi anonimi

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.

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.

This is a light-hearted comedy about two people who are both overly emotional & have anxiety when placed in even the most simple social situations. So, naturally, they are both uncomfortable with each other too. But one thing that they both share a passion for is chocolates. Can two over-emotional & nervous personalities make it work? And if they can, how will they handle all the trails & tribulations that come along with wedding planning? Seems like a recipe for disaster!

It's a simple story but it's certainly not just that. Besides taking a humorous look at the lead pair's 'disability', the film also makes the viewer appreciate how difficult even simple situations can be for people with such temperaments.

Both the lead actors have done a wonderful job. Some of the situations elicit a genuine chuckle from the viewers. Very entertaining!

Jean-René Van Den Hugde (nm068814) and Angélique Delange (Isabelle Carré) both suffer from heavy relational difficulties: in public, they quickly lose their intellectual abilities and are unable to express their emotion without feeling a deep discomfort, an uncontrollable anxiety, fainting, ... Their common passion for chocolate will bring them together and Jean-René will hire Angélique who turns out to be a brilliant and creative chocolate maker while Jean-René runs a small chocolate factory on the verge of bankruptcy. They were meant to fall in love!

As a synthesis: an efficient and original love story with two marvelous actors

Romantics Anonymous (2010)

Sometimes a feelgood movie is so obvious you know at the start how it's going to end. But it feels so good it doesn't matter, and that's the way "Romantics Anonymous" works.

The leading woman Isabelle Carre ("He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not") is a sweet, cute, lovable introvert, and I suppose any movie with her in it acting vulnerable and awkward would be a winner. Next to her is a very geeky kind of leading French actor, Benoit Pelvoorde, who is utterly brilliant even if he won't quite steal your heart. Or maybe he will. Part of the movie's aim is to take two mild misfits who are lonely and yet rather wonderful inside and get the audience to identify with them.

Another major character is the little chocolate factory where they meet. Seeing the chocolates being made, and tasted, is part of the fun of the movie. Even if you don't like chocolate you'll see the pleasure of a superb high-end chocolate being developed as you watch. There are then two groups of sidekicks, one for each character. The woman goes to group therapy for her emotional issues (hence the name of the movie) and the man has his staff at the factory. All of them are, en masse, supportive and sweet.

In fact, with all this sweetness going on you might wonder how you can stand it. And I suppose that's where you appreciate that it's just an hour and a quarter. Plenty. Even at this length you yearn for some complication, or some depth. Our two lovebirds are great but they remain oddly cardboard thin, too.

It's a bit ogre-ish to complain about such a well-meaning and well-made movie. It's edited with breakneck speed, shot well, acted well, and rises up the television sit-com genre it may somehow owe something to. Give it a look. Totally fun.