Heartbreaker

This is a film which goes to show that the French can take a Hollywood staple genre like te rom-com, stick to the format pretty well and still make something much more entertaining than anything Hollywood has produced in the genre for a long time.

The story: Alex (Romain Duris) is hired by people to break-up relationships (only where the woman is really unhappy, but unwilling to face it) by making the women fall for him. In this he is aided by his sister and her husband. Problems come when he is hired by Vanessa Paradis' father to stop her relationship with nice guy Brit, Andrew Lincoln, and he actually starts to fall for her.

So far, so Rom-Com. And all the staple elements are there, but they're handled in a way that feels slightly more knowing, as if the director is winking at the audience and saying "Ok, I know its a cliche, so lets make it fun". So you have the last act run, only this time its from the airport (and on foot). Meanwhile, Paradis proves a surprisingly good leading lady and Duris ladles on the comic charm. There are some good use of stunning locations, Julie Ferrier and Francois Damien provide the broader laughs as the sister and brother-in-law, the movie plays nice games with spy movies, etc... and the high-tech set-ups and the script is smart and funny. Oh, and there is some hilarious takes on Dirty Dancing.

Overall - 7.5/10 A Rom-Com that is genuinely smart and funny, I don't think I've laughed so much at a rom-com for years.