Movie review - La délicatesse/Delicacy/Nathalie kuesst

Ele and I decided to have a date night and for this, we decided to watch the French movie  La délicatesse/Delicacy/Nathalie kuesst in French with deutsch untertiteln. Described in reviews as a romantic comedy...there are romantic elements and comical elements but if you think of romantic comedies as gross-outs or something like Crazy, Stupid, Love, you're going to be disappointed. 


François (Pio Marmai) is sitting in a cafe one day when Nathalie (Audrey Tautou) walks in and he immediately recognises from her order that they are soulmates (awwwww!!!!). They quickly get married and build a beautiful and fun life together, which comes crashing down when François is hit by a car while out jogging (this is not a spoiler!). From here, Nathalie goes through the motions of life until one day, three years or so later, she impulsively kisses co-worker Markus (François Damiens). Overweight, balding, badly dressed, socially awkward, and her subordinate at work, Markus is essentially the complete opposite of Nathalie and François. The movie follows as Nathalie not only struggles with moving on, but with Markus' insecurity who is perceived as so far her inferior by both himself and her friends. 


Quietly affecting, we see how moving on from grief is an individual thing. No one around Nathalie really understands why she shuts down - even her parents and in-laws encourage to move on, and worse, most people around her don't accept whom she has chosen to move on with. She could have moved on with someone as physically attractive as herself (we see her boss constantly hitting on her throughout the film), when what she really wants and needs is someone who was as kind and thoughtful as François.  

And because Markus is such a physical schlumpf in comparison to François, this is what makes the movie work. Pretty much all of the laugh-out-loud moments are at his expense - from his reaction during and immediately after the kiss, to the incredibly awkward things he says and does for Nathalie. He knows people look at him and don't understand why she's with him, but he shows through his actions (e.g. the gift following a conversation), that he is the right guy for her. 


Sweet in a sad way, La délicatesse/Nathalie kuesst, is a whimsical look at love and how it doesn't always pan out the way we (and the people watching us) think.
6/10