Mes amis, mes amours (2008)

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

OK, I usually do not comment on movie here as I don't think I can bring so much interesting things to the debate, but here it's special... Obviously the 3 comments above mines are from non-native French speaker, maybe this explains that. I've only one thing to say about this movie: the actors are TERRIBLES! It's such a pain in the neck just to listen to them! And I really do not understand that, as they are usually (at least Ledoyen and Lindon) very good actors. So just forget this movie, unless you are a cinema school teacher, in which case you can show it to your student and debate over the fact that it is possible to take very good actors and make them play like untalented 7th grade kids. Unbelievable!

I went to see this film with three friends as we're all studying French, and thought it would be a fun little excursion. I'm glad I agreed to go, because it was certainly an evening well spent. There were some truly great one-liners, but the comedy didn't stop there - the situations that the characters found themselves in, although funny, were not unbelievable, and that made it all the more amusing. The characters were very well fleshed out, a nice contrast to many of the films nowadays in which the characters are bare bones, and one really empathised with each character. This film will make you laugh, think, and even cry a little - and it definitely improved my French!

Not a bad film: it has one or two funny moments, but there are quite a few dull scenes which could easily have been cut, and I did find myself looking at my watch a few times to see how long was left. Fortunately, at 99 minutes, it isn't long.There are a couple things wrong though: the quaint-looking London on view here is populated entirely, it seems, by French speakers (including removal men, teachers and builders.) The only interaction with an English speaking person is a scene where one of the characters gets his knuckles rapped by a policeman for daydreaming at traffic lights. The other problem is the plausibility of the relationship between Mathias (Vincent Lindon), a balding middle aged-man and beautiful young Audrey (Virginie Ledoyen). It is hard to see how she could fall for him, (his defining characteristic appears to be a fear of heights). It is not so difficult, however, to see how he might fall for her.I can't really recommend this- there are so many other romantic comedies out there which are better.

Okay, you're a producer and I'm pitching to you: There's these two guys, coming up to middle-age, each has kids and is separated/divorced. They decide to share a house/apartment. That's just about where you'd stop me because 1) I'm no Neil Simon and 2) Jack Lemon and Walter Matthau are not available. Pity you stopped me because if you hadn't I could have said that this is different because instead of what are admittedly great one-lines this scenario has warmth, charm and romance in any order you like. Vincent Lindon and Pascal Elbe (no slouch as a writer himself) are inch-perfect as the leads and Bernadette Lafont atones for all those new wavelet pretentious tosh with which she became associated and contributes a wonderful supporting role as the French Restaurant owner cum friend of the principals. In France currently there are three twenty/thirty -something actresses working regularly and this movie has the best of them which means it's not sluttish Sagnier (Ludo), twee Tautou (Audrey) but lovely Ledoyen (Ginny) and if at 31 she is a tad young for Lindon, now in his fiftieth year, I'm not complaining and he sure as hell isn't. With hindsight it may be the wrong time - two French students have just been horribly murdered here - to release a movie about the joy to be found for expat French in 'frog alley' (the area of South Kensington where they tend to pitch their tents) and maybe they should have thought twice about having a Bookshop specialising in French books for French people called The French Bookshop. There are, as it happens, two French Bookshops in South Kensington and both, not unnaturally have French titles - would you, for example, expect to see in Paris a shop called Libraire Anglais. Apart from minor cavils of this sort this is definitely out of the right bottle and is time well spent.