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Men In Black 3

It’s not a sequel that needed to be made, but thanks to the charm of its leads and a tone that harks back to the wit and humour of the original, it’s a pretty enjoyable trip.

Bel Ami

The excellent female support cast saves this patchy effort, which is let down by its leading man and a flat screenplay.

The Dictator

A disappointing, often repulsive and mean-spirited mess of a film with seemingly only one real criterion on its agenda: to shock and offend.

The Woman In Black

Packed with atmosphere, this old-fashioned but deftly told ghost story delivers ample chills and thrills.

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Beautiful Lies (Film)

by Jenni Dawes | July 18, 2011 16:39 | Edited July 18, 2011 16:40

Falling short on charm and chuckles, audiences will be hard-pressed to care what happens to these contrived and largely unsympathetic characters.

Emilie (Audrey Tautou) runs a hairdressing salon in a seaside French village. She receives an anonymous love letter but, for reasons unexplained, is completely disinterested and tosses it out. Later, after an unsuccessful meeting with her emotionally fragile mother, Maddy (Nathalie Baye), she rescues the letter and forwards it on, hoping that a dash of romance will revive her mother's spirits.

 

It works, but a little too well. Maddy, who has been clinging to her husband despite four years of separation, simply transfers her dreams onto this new, mystery man. She becomes listless and dejected when another letter doesn't arrive. Emilie decides to continue the charade, now penning the letters herself. This leads to a case of mistaken identity when Jean (Sami Bouajila), the handyman in Emilie's salon and the author of the original letter, decides to hand deliver the mail and Maddy catches him. Unable to admit to Maddy what she has done, Emilie asks Jean to act as the suitor and woo her mother on a few dates.

 

On paper, it sounds like the ingredients for an hilarious French romantic caper, particularly with the internationally-adored Tautou on board. Sadly, it's anything but. Tautou, normally so delightful, is off her game. Her Emilie is contrived, and rude and selfish to the point where one wonders how Jean could be so enamoured. The characters become increasingly vile to each other, and are impossible to empathise with. Jean initially courts sympathy as the kind, shy intellectual buffeted by Emilie's erratic moods, but loses it as quickly as he does his integrity as actions progress. The film is pitched as a romantic comedy, but it barely raises a chuckle, and the mother-daughter love triangle is just plain awkward. It's a French farce, certainly, but unfortunately neither of the charming nor the intentional variety.