Rating:
* *
Verdict:
Shapeless and shallow French romantic comedy about four women waiting for the phone to ring.
A couple of years old now, this French chick flick, released in the United States under the title Gorgeous, is a rather chaotic and shapeless romantic comedy about four women's romantic aspirations and tribulations.
It's pitched at an age group a bit older than the target market for Sex and the City but it's safe to say that it will appeal most to those who think feminism means getting their husbands to do the dishes from time to time.
The set-up gains a dimension of interest from the fact that the women are all members of the Parisian Jewish middle class but these are not the Jews of Woody Allen's or even Seinfeld's world: there's a bit too much joy about for that.
Isa (Laroque) runs a beauty parlour and is trying to make up her mind what the nature of her relationship is to a handsome English tax consultant [sic]; her sister Alice (Benguigui) is disenchanted by her marriage to a football-loving couch potato and enjoying the company of the single father of one of her children's playmates; Lea (Autika) is trying, and largely failing, to get over her ex-husband and Nina (Nakache) is a young woman anxious about her appearance (hardly surprising since one of her mates thinks her 54kg body needs slimming down).
The occasional smart one-liner ("why bother [with a husband] now that suitcases have wheels?") can't really compensate for the shallowness of the whole enterprise.
With the possible exception of the conflicted Isa, none of the characters seems to have a remotely interesting inner life apart from waiting for the phone to ring - and hoping it will be him.
Peter Calder
Cast:
Michele Laroque, Aure Atika, Valerie Benguigui, Geraldine Nakache
Director:
Lisa Azuelos
Running time:
85 mins
Rating:
M (offensive language, sexual references)
Screening:
Academy
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