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Thursday, January 26, 2012

I Do (2010)

Only the French could do a film like this and get away with it. Here is the basic plot. Luis Costa (Alain Chabat) doesn't want to get married. An introduction, at breakneck pace and in black-and-white, shows us why. He grew up surrounded by women. After the early death of her beloved husband Hercules, the matriarch Genevieve (Bernadette Lafont) instituted a family council in which Luis is always overruled by the woman in his life--his mother and five sisters. By 43, he's happily single, with a job as a mixer of perfume - and a gorgeous apartment that's as tasteful as it is tidy, eating at his mother's place regularly and having his laundry done by his sisters. The sisters vote and agree he should marry; they choose women for him. He rejects all comers, with increasing hostility, until he meets Emma (Charlotte Gainsbourg), the sister of his colleague. He has a plan. He hires her to be his fiance. Her main job is to get his family to adore her, and then to abandon him at the altar, leaving him so understandably heart-broken that he cannot consider marrying. Silly plan, predictably fails, and equally predictably, Luis and Emma fall for each other. Old-fashioned doesn't really describe it. At the same time, the film does have some contemporary resonance. They are alone without being loners. Emma's goal is to adopt a baby from Brazil, without a partner; Luis wants neither partner nor children. There's a strong sense that they're missing out, but don't see it. If you love French Romantic comedies, this is a good representation of the genre.

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