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Romantics Anonymous is another great little French romantic comedy. I recently reviewed I Do, another French romantic comedy, and played around with some ideas of potential actors to play the American remake. Romantics Anonymous really doesn't need an American remake, and maybe I Do doesn't either actually. But if they did go ahead and remake it here anyways, Steve Carrell would HAVE to star in Romantics Anonymous. It is right in his wheel house. Slightly older, totally awkward guy, seeking true meaningful romance.
I've mentioned several times here that I have a special weakness for movies about cooking, but this one gets a double win because not only is it about a chef, but also chocolate truffles. Add in the sweet little romance it illustrates, and what more could a girl want? Ok, maybe I wouldn't have minded having actual truffles to snack on while I watched, instead of just drooling on myself. But just desiring them was pleasurable enough.
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I felt like the film did a great job really taking its time with the uncomfortable moment to accentuate both pain and comedy in this budding romance. I love how a woman who is entirely to shy to sell chocolates to customers can go on and on like an impassioned politician when defending the chocolates to the people who make them. The male lead has an issue with sweating through shirts when he's nervous, and they play that up through the whole film just hilariously.
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Romantic comedies stick so closely to formulas. One trend this one broke, perhaps on account of its being French, I'm not film savvy enough to know such things, was that the female lead didn't have to have a best friend side kick to talk to and thereby let us know whatever she was feeling. I was recently reading that men share intimate emotional feelings more comfortably in one on one interactions, and while women will do that too, they are also more likely to seek out a whole group of people for emotional support. I felt like this film highlighted that trend by showing us the guy's feelings while he spoke to his therapist, and the woman's emotions as she debriefed to her support group. Though, someone who is more familiar with French mental health culture, please tell me what is up with having an alcoholics anonymous-esque group, confessing about being "emotional." Are emotions considered mentally unhealthy in France? I'm guessing not, but that sure made me curious.
Two claws up from me! A totally enjoyable treat!
I watched this a few weeks ago. It was cute; pretty typical French romantic comedy I thought. I'm not familiar with the French mental health system, at all, but I interpreted the group as being for people who were overwhelmed by their emotions or trouble dealing with them. Clearly the leads had serious anxiety issues. Of course, being a French romcom, these problems are kind of inconsistent and are fairly easily overcome. I've noticed that the characters in these kind of French movies are generally more "human" than those in American romcoms, but there usually isn't a whole lot of depth. "Amelie" is another good example-those characters all had very deep-rooted emotional disturbances, but that just made them charming. The translation to "romantics" was just sloppy and really had no link to the actual plot.
ReplyDeleteO, good to know! Thanks, Micaela!
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