Friday, July 17, 2009

Movie review - My Friends, My Loves (Mes Amis, Mes Amours)

To be honest, I hadn't heard anything about this movie but Laulita had free tix so I went on down to watch it with her. Following the completion of the movie, I was still fairly ambivalent about the whole thing. It's now been a couple of days since I saw it and I'm really struggling to remember enough about it to write a critical review. Bless IMDB.

Mathias (Vincent Lindon) is a Parisien bookseller who is convinced to move to London by his best friend Antoine (Pascal Elbe). It also helps that his ex-wife and 9 (?) yo daughter live there and he hopes to become a family again. Alas, his dreams are dashed when his ex reveals she's moving back to Paris with a diplomat. To solve their communal loneliness, Mathias convinces Antoine (an architect) that they should knock down the communal wall in their terrace houses and live together as a family (Antoine has a son of comparable age to Mathias' daughter). And the two guys live together in a bromantic family arrangement with an assortment of ex-pat Frenchies until Mathias starts to fall in love with the beautiful Audrey (Virginie Ledoyen).

The story and acting were about the same - passable but nothing hugely inspiring to make me think I'd watch it again. Although the situation of two straight guys living together as a family was milked for a few laughs, given that they weren't doing it under the pretense of being gay the movie didn't go into any Strange Bedfellows/I Now Pronounce You... shenanigans.

Just as there was nothing great about it, there was nothing particularly bad about this movie either. I did laugh out loud a few times. It was quite nice to see the small family-like community of the two guys and their various friends but by the same token, it's London and yet everyone either speaks or is French. *shrug* I suppose I could say that a 50-ish guy who looks like Vincent Lindon would in no way be able to score a hottie like Virginie Ledoyen in real life but I suppose charm can go a long way!

Nothing particularly groundbreaking, some laugh-out-loud moments,
just a bit *meh* overall.
5-6/10

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