A secretly intellectual odd-jobber writes a love letter to his boss who in turn sends it to her mother who instantly falls for the odd-jobber to the eventual jealousy of the boss.
As the characters keep telling us, “it’s complicated.” But it’s not - it’s simply preposterous. The quirky tale (another Franch comedy, ohoh hoh hoh) is about as believable as creationist homeopathy rhetoric, with stupefyingly odious characters gormlessly wandering into completely unfounded love traps.
This is not Audrey Tautou’s finest hour. She pouts her way through proceedings nicely enough but her character, a super-bitch for 90% of the film, isn’t remotely likable, let alone lovable. She’s also an unadulterated alcoholic, one night downing over a litre of vodka from a bottle she stashes in her desk drawer. There’s a whole intervention sub-plot missing here. This might be understandable behaviour, though, because her mother is a bona fide nutcase. The wooden love interest also has a bafflingly instantaneous breakdown to become a super-bastard for a while. Great!
The poster proudly quotes Marie Claire, that bastion of informed, reliable film review sources, saying it “matches the heights of Amelie”. Quite fitting, really, being as absurd as the film itself.
17th Aug 2011 | Official site | On IMDb
