Amar não Tem Preço

Last night my girlfriend dragged me to a chick flick. Fortunately for me, my girl has pretty good taste and it happened to be a French chick flick. Priceless doesn't redefine the genre, but it does prove most European mainstream films have a lot more going for them than most mainstream American films.

"Love conquers all" is certainly not an original theme, yet clichéd or not, this telling feels both fresh and intelligent. Whereas American chick flicks portray women as lonely, hopeless and dying to meet Mr. Right, Priceless establishes its female lead as anything but. Audrey Tautou's Irène is an icy predator, a materialistic bitch with no redeeming qualities other than a great body every designer dress she dons showcases. Here the male lead Jean (Gad Elmaleh) is the hapless and hopeless romantic, who is desperate to melt the ice queen's heart. While this setup might call to mind the Coen Brother's Intolerable Cruelty, it doesn't suffer from IC's achilles heel: aping the films it was inspired by. The Coen's film is an all too obvious tribute to Howard Hawk's screwball romantic comedies, so much so, their respect for Hawk's becomes the very crutch that renders IC lame. Priceless also pays respect to classic French comedies (ie. the films of Louis de Funès and Jacques Tati) but, unlike IC, it never gets bogged down by its influences. Priceless manages to make the old seem new and it is buoyed by its charm, its nuanced writing and the performances of the two leads.

Gad Elmaleh who plays the naïve Jean, not only nails every bit of physical comedy assigned to him, but he also provides Priceless with its heart. You can't help but feel his pain as you see in his eyes the heartache and humiliation inflicted upon him by Tautou's Irène. Throughout the film Elmaleh effortlessly expresses a wide range of emotions and even though the comedy is, at times, broad it never feels contrived and always feels natural.

I'm not going to go over the top and call this a masterpiece, but if you've got to sacrifice some blood and sit through a chick flick after subjecting your better half to a Herzog marathon (as I recently did), then Priceless is the perfect choice.

I loved this movie. The cast was well acted, the relationships kept me at the edge of my seat as there were always suspense and thrills with every single relationship and this includes the spotlight characters. Every actor's facial expressions, not outcasting the supporting roles were so well acted that every one had me guessing, worrying the conditions of the relationships every second.

This is a great break away from Hollywood comedies/romance movies these days and it gives me great relief that great films like this still exists! So, if you've gotten used to movies filled with senseless sex, random nudity-all the ingredients of these days' plot less "romantic teen comedies", you wouldn't like this movie.

That having said, loved Audrey Tatou's acting-AS ALWAYS. She made me hate her guts in the beginning, then sympathize with her, feel happy for her, as she discovers and attempts to claim her love.

I've just been introduced to Gad and truthfully, I was really not looking forward to seeing him in it because he looks too skinny, his features too pointedly brought together to be instantly attractive for a romantic role like this. And, this is the case in the beginning. However, he surprises me as time progresses-and I unconsciously got sucked into his talented, fabulous acting. Now all I can see is a foxy, sexy guy with a lot of wits who can melt any female in a second.

Overall this is a great film about relationships, discovery, interaction between realistic people, human values that are often taken for granted and forgotten these days, altogether stringed with sweet icings of hysterical laughters from easy humour, not to mention loveeee and romannceee!!

Audrey Tautou, the sweetheart of France (and, to me, the rest of the world), returns to the romantic comedy in 'Hors de Prix' aka 'Priceless,' a film by Pierre Salvadori ('Après vous...' (2003)).

Tautou plays a different type of role (in the same type of film) as swindler Irène who uses her sexuality to make men keep her satisfied (materialistically). Her plans go awry when she's left by her rich fiancé and runs to the arms of whom she assumes is a rich business man, Jean (Gad Elmaleh). Unfortunately for Irène, however, Jean is merely a hotel worker who just happened to be at the right place at the right time.

Surprisingly (as she's regularly one of the most attractive women in the world), Audrey looks better than ever. Not only does she have her typical 'adorable' going for her, but here she's extremely sexy as well.

The story is charming and cute, but has a bit of a bite to it. It's questionable as to exactly WHY Jean would like Irène so much with as cruel as she is. . . sure, she's drop-dead gorgeous, but Jean didn't really seem, to me, the type that would fall for something like that. Oh well, can't have everything spoonfed to us and we must take it as given. There are many laugh-out-loud moments, mostly from Jean's awkwardness playing off Irène's smoothness. And it all turns out to be a very pleasant & entertaining romantic comedy that's sure to treat fans of the genre well.

Final Verdict: 8/10.

-AP3-

A charming, classy comedy of morals as only the French can do it. This was also the milieu of the great German-born American director Ernst Lubitsch, who flourished between the 20's and the 40's.

The theme of mutual con games mixing sex and money reminded me very much of Lubitsch's 1932 classic, "Trouble in Paradise", which shows up on TCM every once in awhile. See "Priceless" and rent "Trouble" and see if you agree.

This is not a masterpiece, but it is a very clever, witty and enjoyable film with an excellent cast. As always, Tautou is a delight. Cudos also to Gad Elmaleh as the bartender/dog walker Jean and Marie-Christine Adam as the rich widow.

With so much rubbish hitting screens across the world it's a breath of fresh air each time a film comes along that treats its audience with respect and acknowledges a level of intelligence and ability to pick up detail without banging us over the head with it. Priceless takes a simple idea that in other hands would have stayed at the simple level and develops layers and folds, shades of grey, as well as some straight up laughs.

Audrey Tautou does wonders with her character, making her lovable one minute and despicable the next but not so much that we hate her. I was amazed at the natural flow with which she delivered her performance. A slight facial expression speaking pages. If I wasn't a fan before, I am now.

Gad Elmaleh delivers a similar performance as he did in the valet, which works perfectly for this movie, luckily. He is really good at what he does, and for those that say he is unbelievable in the lead romantic role, I think he pulled out the charm quite convincingly at the right moments, which is exactly what the feel of the film required. These are not cartoon characters that we know are either good or bad, they're complex, just like real humans who some times we hate, and some times we love. Yay for quality cinema!!