Coming Soon

By Kirk Honeycutt

BERLIN (Hollywood Reporter) - "Heartbreakers" is one of those high-concept comedies the French turn out with seeming ease. Yes, they traffic in stereotypes, slapstick and near-operatic emotions. But they are so much fun to watch that American producers keep trying to remake them without ever quite getting it right.

With a bright and extremely good-looking cast headed by Romain Duris and Vanessa Paradis and the splashy backdrop of Monte Carlo, "Heartbreakers" mixes its ingredients into a frothy cocktail of Gallic risibility. Fans of gritty realism need to look elsewhere.

And, yes, in case you're wondering, Universal Pictures and Working Title reportedly have snapped up English remake rights to "Heartbreakers" ("L'amacoeur"). Yet the film itself is still available for many territories, including North America. Sure looks like a smart buy.

OK, here's the high concept: Alex (Duris), his sister (Julie Ferrier) and her husband (Francois Damiens) run an unusual business: For a price, they break up romances.

As a result of Alex's charms, the elaborate stage managing of his brother-in-law, who handles all things technical, and his sister, who handles everything else, women's eyes open about their lovers' true nature and they see greater possibilities for their future.

The movie starts out full throttle. A love con in North Africa sets up Alex as a rugged and altruistic though lovelorn doctor bringing vital medical assistance to needy rural villagers. With financial payoffs to his "cast of characters" and a heady romantic atmosphere supplied by his co-conspirators, Alex sweeps a young woman off her feet and safely out of the arms of a philandering lover. Mission accomplished!

Back in Paris, though, the trio is summoned for a mission impossible. A wealthy father needs them to break up the wedding of his daughter the following week. Alex's unfortunate debts to a mobster convince him he must ignore his first rule: Never break up a romance where the woman is truly happy.

For Juliette (Paradis) has landed a catch: Her fiance (Jacques Frantz) is rich, handsome, generous and very much in love with her. With no time to lose, Alex has the bright idea to get the father to hire him as Juliette's bodyguard as she settles into Monte Carlo to make final wedding arrangements.

She detests Alex at first sight and doesn't think much better of him the second time. Alex's team goes into full combat mode. While some of their tricks work just fine, others misfire. Especially when Juliette's nymphomaniac girlfriend (Helena Noguerra) shows up and sets her sights on Alex.

While this is not quite French farce, adjoining bedroom doors do slam open and shut, and the romance here is most definitely a contact sport. Quite predictably, although perhaps the word is "inevitably," Alex falls for his prey. The heartbreaker gets his heart broken.

Most of the gags are quite delicious. The best one involves Juliette's favorite film, "Dirty Dancing," and Alex's intense study of all of Patrick Swayze's dance moves so he can impress Juliette. A few, such as those involving a goon sent to check up on the indebted client, are lame and repetitive.

Television director Pascal Chaumeil, making a winning feature debut, keeps the comic flow in Laurent Zeitoun, Jeremy Doner and Yohan Gromb's screenplay moving at a rapid pace. Duris and Paradis make a charismatic couple, perhaps out of the pages of Elle magazine, with sparks flying believably and not just because the script says so.

Veteran cinematographer Thierry Arbogast takes full advantage of Monte Carlo's glamour to fill the screen with eye-pleasing images.

Copyright 2010 Reuters

See This One Before Hollywood Remakes It

Movie review by Neil Sadler

HEARTBREAKER should be a Hollywood movie. It feels like a Hollywood rom-com but definitely one of the better ones like PRETTY WOMAN or even WHEN HARRY MET SALLY.

But HEARTBREAKER is a French film and wears its continental charms firmly on its Chanel sleeves. Although much of the music and even some of the jokes and styling are obviously influenced by American film, it is the Gallic character of the film that gives it an edge.

This is the story of Alex (Romain Duris) who, along with his sister and her tech-nerd husband, break up women from their spouses using seduction, subterfuge and a few hi-tec tools. However Alex only takes the job if the women are unhappy. In a break-neck opening sequence, we meet Alex in full seduction mode as he seduces first one and then a series of "unhappy" women and learn what a master of the technique he is as well as how his “job” is more a love than a career and hence he is in debt to the wrong people.

The main plot revolves around his mission to seduce Juliette (Vanessa Paradis) a rich girl with an even richer father who hires Alex to stop her marrying the seemingly perfect husband. This being rom-com land it doesn't take a rocket scientist or even a Hollywood hack to realize that Alex begins to fall for his target and his mission is complicated by his own heart.

The script is witty and smart even when it verges on the ridiculous and it makes great use of multiple locations to present a glossy (most of the action takes place in impossibly glamorous Monaco) but believable environment for the romance to unfold.

But much of the reason this film is such a joy is the charisma of its leads. You may have seen Romain Duris in THE BEAT MY HEART SKIPPED – a beautiful but very serious film. Here he gives the kind of endearing performance that made a career for Julia Roberts or Hugh Grant. In fact it was only afterwards I realized it was the same actor from that film.

Vanessa Paradis is rarely seen in films but she proves what an underrated actress she is. Initially cold and calculating, you fall in love with her at about the same moment that Alex does.

There are a few times when the film stretches into farce, a more typical environment for French comedy (or at least the ones we get to see.) Although more laugh out loud at these points, they were less successful than the subtler romantic elements.

It is always difficult when watching a film in a foreign language to know if the jokes translate correctly but when a film leaves you this satisfied, it is hard to complain.

Obviously at some point a Hollywood insider will watch this film and decide to remake it with Zac Efron and Jennifer Aniston or the like and in all likelihood drain all charm and life from it. See it before they do.

Copyright 2010 Phase9.tv movies