Film Reviews

Heartbreakers

• Rating:
• Director: Pascal Chaumeil.
• Starring: Romain Duris, Vanessa Paradis, Julie Ferrier, Francois Damiens.
• Details: France/Monaco / 105mins (15A).

When France ditches the tragic dramas for lightweight comedies the end result is usually mixed. Sometimes the gags don't translate but in Heartbreaker's case (as in Welcome to the Sticks, My Best Friend, Micmacs and Priceless) the problem is rooted in character. According to Alex (Duris) women in relationships come in three categories: 1) Happy; 2) Knowingly unhappy; and 3) Unknowingly unhappy. The third category is where Alex comes in: he's a 'professional heartbreaker' - if there's a woman in your life that you feel could do without the man in her life, you employ Alex and his team (master of disguise Ferrier and tech whiz Damiens) to sweep said woman off her feet so she sees the man she's with isn't 'the one'. His new job, however, is his toughest yet. He's hired by a rich businessman to stop the upcoming wedding of his daughter Juliette (Paradis) to a rich English Dudley Do-Right (Andrew Lincoln). Problems arise immediately: There are only ten days to the wedding, Lincoln is a knight in shining armour, Juliette apparently loves him deeply and Alex wasn't counting on falling for his subject. It's easy to be seduced by Heartbreaker's beautiful locations (the beaches, hotels and mountain ranges of Monte Carlo are stunning), snappy dressers and beautiful people, but it's a vacant film and bereft of anyone the audience can root for. A frothy, farcical romp it may be, but this Hitch-in-reverse isn't as fun as it should be and that's because the characters are ciphers. Since Duris is playing Alex and Alex is playing a character he needs to play to get the job done, the audience is never privy to the real Alex. Who is he? What makes him tick? We never get to know. Ditto Paradis' Juliette. Although we get to know a little about her thanks to the crew's meticulous research (she loves Dirty Dancing and Wham!) but why he is attracted to her isn't on screen - he's attracted to her for no other reason than the script says so. Everything here exists on the surface. The gags too are barely chucklers; the two standout jokes riff on Dirty Dancing and Wham! - pop culture references are what to movie jokes as sarcasm is to wit. The audience knows what is going to happen from the outset - we can pretend we don't, but we do - but the major problem with Heartbreaker is inherent in the idea: how can Paradis become a heroine when her about-to-be-dumped fiancé is such a decent guy? These are the problems awaiting the Hollywood remake Heartbreaker has been earmarked for.

Review by Gavin Burke