La fille de Monaco

My laugh meter was in constant activity throughout this film, one of the most entertaining French comedies of recent years. Anne Fontaine's witty script and assured direction gave me a lot of pleasure. The first scene between Fabrice Luchini and Hélène de Saint-Père--that amorous banter out of Marivaux--set the tone for me. Luchini is at the top of his form now, much stronger than he was in La Discrète or Beaumarchais l'insolent. He portrays the erotic confusion of the middle-aged man so well. Roschdy Zem, so often used as ethnic content in his films, here provides us with the (almost) definitive portrait of the loyal servant with his own agenda (cf. Dirk Bogarde in The Servant). Louise Bourgoin has a great natural comic flair that will serve her well in future roles (she outshines that other comic weather girl Michelle Pfeiffer in Up Close and Personal).

Anne Fontaine has given me so much satisfaction over the last ten years: I think of Nettoyage à sec, Comment J'ai tué mon père, Nathalie... She is a stalwart of the French film industry.

This film screened at the 2009 Palm Springs Film Fest to a large, mostly receptive audience. The plot involves a Parisian attorney who travels to Monaco to defend a woman accused of murder. On arriving he finds that he's been assigned a bodyguard who becomes a major part of the story. He also rather quickly finds himself becoming involved with locals, among them an aggressive young female who does the weather on a local TV channel but has much higher aspirations. Without giving away too much of the story, this film seems to go deeper than it appears on the surface. It seemed to me to be an allegory to the state of affairs in France and many other places in the world. The loss of common decency and higher standards is a threat to our existence. The lawyer is a straight arrow old school fellow, with high ethics, who becomes seduced by a woman with all the trappings of modern society. She and her friends have little regard for what's right or wrong and just live for the moment, with little thought about the consequences. The movie is enjoyable to watch, even if you're not interested in subplots or extra meaning, but this one is full of room for discussion after you leave the theater.

Director Anne Fontaine ambitiously tries to mix traditional rom-com elements with drama. If she had succeeded, La fille de Monaco could have been a standout movie in 2008. Unfortunately, the end result feels awkward and we are left unable to connect with the movie or the characters.

Fabrice Luchini plays Bertrand Beauvois, an elite lawyer coming to Monaco to work a high- profile case. He is assigned a bodyguard, Christophe (Roschdy Zem) and while in Monaco, develops a relationship with a quirky weather girl (Louise Bourgoin) who was formerly romantically involved with the man assigned to protect him.

Audrey, our weather forecast girl is considerably younger than Beauvois and her behaviour will remind many viewers of traditional movies where a (usually stuck up) guy sees his life turned a little upside down by a wild woman. It helps that Louise Bourgoin is absolutely stunning. The classic European look you would expect in a Bond Girl. Unfortunately, her acting is not as great as her looks, which makes this Love Triangle of a sort rather inefficient.

Luchini and Zem have slightly more chemistry and the bound they form as protector and protected is potentially interesting but never fully realized. The contrasts between the two (social class, education, outlook on life) still provides for the only interesting bits in the film.

Unfortunately, the film suddenly and unexpectedly slides into very dramatic territory. I do love when a movie elegantly does this but because of lack of character development, it is difficult to buy the turn of events experienced here.

I would be curious to see more of Fontaine's work because I love the general direction and tone this movie was going for, but it failed in the execution. Better casting and more work on the script could have led to a balanced movie that would have been haunting and powerful.

But in its actual state, it just ends up being a forgettable movie because it fails to engage us enough to care about the events unfolding.

Bertrand (Fabrice Luchini) is a lawyer on a high-profile case in Monaco, and then he meets Audrey - "The Girl from Monaco". It could be interesting except there is nothing in these characters to connect us to them.

The three main characters, Audrey, Bertrand and his bodyguard had really strange relationships with each other. Way too intimate of conversations for virtual strangers. So I felt further away from them and never could care for them.

I also never could figure out what genre this film is supposed to be. The plot outline reads like a thriller, but it says its supposed to be a comedy and it plays out more like a romantic drama. I can see the comedy elements, and it is light in its nature, but it's not laugh-out-loud funny. It's too strange to be romantic, and nothing interesting develops to make this a thriller. Perhaps it really is a comedy as it claims, just a not very funny one.

It has high production value, it's shot well, and "The Girl from Monaco" is definitely beautiful, but there's nothing in the story to recommend it.

I read the reviews on iIMDb before watching the movie so that I knew what to expect, and, thus, I was not disappointed. One very positive thing about it is that it was not boring. In addition, thanks to my local public library, I saw the movie for free (unless I count the thousands of dollars I pay each year in property taxes that go to my local school and library system).Therefore, I gave the movie 7 out of 10 points.