I saw this movie literally to get out of the intense heat a couple of nights ago not expecting or even knowing that much about it and that's prob the best way to approach it. Its a very nice and deceptively light french film about the ridiculousness of people's beliefs and the ridiculousness that other people will go to to change these beliefs. Film wants to and very much succeeds in wanting to merge people's personal beliefs with their political ones but in a way that is both light and sweet and funny without being either too maudlin and sad or too lightweight.
Film features a radical liberal who knowing that talk will never get anyone to change their minds prefers to let her body do the talking for her. (she engages in intercourse to get other people to change their minds--just how she does it is explained in the film although its a fair question as to whether or not it would actually work in real life or not.)One day she hears this uptight doctor on the phone and decides to seduce him--not knowing that he brings his own rather heavy baggage with him in the form of family history, parental beliefs informing his own beliefs and just about everything you can imagine really. She in turn brings her own baggage (fam history, parental beliefs, and also current relationship with parents)but she never doubts her own abilities to change anyone's minds for a second.
Needless to say they fall for one another and an attachment gets made and now the 2 of them have to overcome a lot to make it work if they're gonna make it work at all. This is not a spoiler to say that this is what happens--because the bulk of the movie is the 2 leads trying to get their stuff in tune with one another so that they can continue to more or less lead the lives they were living just with each other instead of without.
Its not an easy tone to pull off given the balance that is needed to offset real world beliefs with the warmth and heart needed to make a successful romantic comedy but this one managed to do it more so then any recent film i can recall seeing which is damn impressive. Its actually quite Woody Allenish in some way which is even more impressive as most who try to copy Allen can't quite get the heart part right. Much like some of Woody Allen's films this film even brings in some really heavy duty topics with an amazingly light touch. Things like the holocaust, the war of Algerian independence, and modern day conservatism vs modern day liberalism all manage to get touched upon and discussed but never in a way that's heavy handed or brings the movie to a halt. Film always amazingly manages to maintain a lightness of touch and this is in no small part because of the very zesty and very lively performance of Sara Forstier in the lead role. She is like Sophia Loren in some of her more lively performances one who clearly loves life and one who doesn't really care or need other people to tell her how she should live it and its one that should her career take off--it'll be this role that people look back on 10, 20 years from now and say Viva La France!
Film features a radical liberal who knowing that talk will never get anyone to change their minds prefers to let her body do the talking for her. (she engages in intercourse to get other people to change their minds--just how she does it is explained in the film although its a fair question as to whether or not it would actually work in real life or not.)One day she hears this uptight doctor on the phone and decides to seduce him--not knowing that he brings his own rather heavy baggage with him in the form of family history, parental beliefs informing his own beliefs and just about everything you can imagine really. She in turn brings her own baggage (fam history, parental beliefs, and also current relationship with parents)but she never doubts her own abilities to change anyone's minds for a second.
Needless to say they fall for one another and an attachment gets made and now the 2 of them have to overcome a lot to make it work if they're gonna make it work at all. This is not a spoiler to say that this is what happens--because the bulk of the movie is the 2 leads trying to get their stuff in tune with one another so that they can continue to more or less lead the lives they were living just with each other instead of without.
Its not an easy tone to pull off given the balance that is needed to offset real world beliefs with the warmth and heart needed to make a successful romantic comedy but this one managed to do it more so then any recent film i can recall seeing which is damn impressive. Its actually quite Woody Allenish in some way which is even more impressive as most who try to copy Allen can't quite get the heart part right. Much like some of Woody Allen's films this film even brings in some really heavy duty topics with an amazingly light touch. Things like the holocaust, the war of Algerian independence, and modern day conservatism vs modern day liberalism all manage to get touched upon and discussed but never in a way that's heavy handed or brings the movie to a halt. Film always amazingly manages to maintain a lightness of touch and this is in no small part because of the very zesty and very lively performance of Sara Forstier in the lead role. She is like Sophia Loren in some of her more lively performances one who clearly loves life and one who doesn't really care or need other people to tell her how she should live it and its one that should her career take off--it'll be this role that people look back on 10, 20 years from now and say Viva La France!