Film Reviews

Beautiful Lies

• Rating:
• Director: Pierre Salvadori
• Starring: Audrey Tautou
• Details: France / 105mins (PG).

The enjoyment of Beautiful Lies hinges on one simple thing: do you believe Audrey Tautou is a likeable romantic lead? The French actress has been coasting on her delightfully kooky performance in 2001's Amelie but looking at her roles since then - Coco Before Chanel, A Very Long Engagement, Priceless and The Da Vinci Code - if you take away Tautou's kookiness, the delightfulness follows. Beautiful Lies could have been knockabout fun, but with Tautou's unlikeable character at the centre of the hubbub, it fails to click into place.
It all began with a letter. Desperately in love with Emilie (Tautou), the pushy hairdresser, handyman Jean (Bouajila) pours out his feelings for his boss on paper. Emilie then forwards the letter anonymously to her mother Maddy (Baye) to put a spring back in her step after her husband left her for a younger woman. Forced to write more letters to keep a smile on Maddy's face, Emilie asks Jean to deliver one of them... and he is spotted by Maddy. Now infatuated with her daughter's handsome employee, Emilie pleads with Jean to date her mother. Plans like this never go to plan…
With the danger of being rumbled at any moment, Beautiful Lies delights in tying itself up in knots, twists and turns. This farce is light-hearted fun... until it takes a turn for the gloomy two-thirds of the way through and doesn't recover. Taking a break from solemn work with Rachid Bouchareb (he was tremendous in Days of Glory and Outside The Law), Sami Bouajila makes the transition to lightweight romantic comedy quite easily. Ditto Nathalie Baye: the sixty-three-year-old looks remarkable for her age and her sparkling eyes would turn any head. It's a shame that the plot has Jean in love with Emilie and Emilie alone because it would be great to see these two together. In fact, the movie would have worked so much better if this were their story.
But Beautiful Lies isn't Bouajila's or Baye's - it's Tautou's and she isn't pleasant. Okay, so you don't have to be pleasant - you can get by on interesting, funny or scary - but being pleasant is paramount if you're the lead in a rom-com. Tautou here doesn't say anything interesting. She treats her mother badly. At one point she fires Jean because he's smart (?). It's difficult to root for her. Why Jean loves her so much isn't in the film and so it's hard to get onside with his lovesick plight.
If you like Tautou and can buy her in a rom-com, then Beautiful Lies will work wonders. If not…

Review by Gavin Burke