MON MEILLEUR AMI (MY BEST FRIEND)
She Will See You A $200,000 Vase . . . and He'll Raise You A Best Friend,
D'accord?
The Popcorn Reel Film Review: "Mon Meilleur Ami" (My Best Friend)
By Omar P.L. Moore/August 10, 2007
Wanna Bet? Julie Gayet as Christine makes a most decently indecent
proposal to Daniel Auteil, who plays Francois, in Patrice Leconte's "Mon
Meilleur Ami". (Photo courtesy: IFC Films)
Patrice Leconte is adept in crystallizing loneliness in both its
humorous and most moving dimensions in "Mon Meilleur Ami" (aka "My Best
Friend"), a highly entertaining and enjoyable film that suffers from one big
flaw: both of its main characters are "too likable", or, not un-likable enough.
Daniel Auteil, the legendary actor from France, recently of "La Doublure" ("The
Valet"), is Francois, a likable and funny self-absorbed man who thinks he has
company in the friendships of those he associates with. When he realizes
that he does not, he is on the fast track to trying to make or manufacture a
friendship to win a bet with his business partner Christine (Julie Gayet) in
order to win the $200,000 (or was it 200,000 Euros?) vase that he just
purchased. Francois has two weeks to produce that elusive friend.
"Mon Meilleur Ami" is cheeky and witty and by the time Bruno, a cab driver
around town (played by Dany Boon, also of "The Valet") enters the fray, you have
two admirable guys who are on a collision course.
The fun and the heart that beats strongly in Mr. Leconte's film is not the very
funny performance by Mr. Auteil as the lonely bird -- in one sequence he asks
two men who are dining what steps they specifically took to become friends --
but is the underlying charm and melancholy that resonates from this. Mr.
Leconte takes the ultimate fear -- loneliness and not finding that special
someone -- and plays that potential tragedy for laughs, and does it well.
Again, the only thing that lacks bite is that one or both of the characters lack
the meanness or anti-social disposition that would have made the film stronger
and more incisive. Because both principal characters are
essentially nice guys, the audience has a safety net for them and thus less of a
reason to invest in disliking Francois. Yet such a scenario plays as a
double-edged sword on the other hand, because you still root for Mr. Auteil's
character to find the one friend in the world that he thinks he has. Maybe
the film wouldn't have found a rooting interest in its protagonist if he were as
misanthropic as, say, Billy Bob Thornton's character in "Bad Santa", a funnier
and more crass movie because of the situations surrounding Mr. Thornton, as well
as for his performance.
Perhaps if Francois were a misogynist or misanthrope like the Billy Crudup
character in the upcoming "Dedication", "Mon Meilleur Ami" would have been even
better. The other mistake that the screenplay, written by Mr. Leconte and
Jerome Tonner (based on an idea by Olivier Dazat) makes is that there isn't any
hint of a suggestion as to how Francois became so alone and without a friend to
call his own, or why he is so unlikable. He is confident and is a good
person at heart, so why is it that he is without friends? Is it by choice?
(Maybe.) Is it because he's shy? (Certainly not!) The
screenplay never tells the audience why (and maybe it doesn't really have to.)
The writers no doubt relied on the nuance of Auteil's acting to flesh this out,
but unfortunately even his acting here doesn't sufficiently reveal just enough
of a hint of unlikable trait.
Even with the few critical flaws of this admirable and touching comedy,
directing legend Leconte gets this film right, making it a film worth watching
and thinking about on the big screen. Despite the elongated melodrama near
the end of the film, which begins to wear out its welcome, even the most cynical
(or loneliest) person in the world will surely get a big kick and big laughs out
of this heartwarming comedy.
"Mon Meilleur Ami", which opened last month in New York, San Francisco and
Los Angeles, is making its way around the U.S. The film is rated PG-13 by
the Motion Picture Association of America for some strong language. The
film is in the French language with English subtitles. The film's duration
is one hour and 34 minutes.
Copyright The Popcorn Reel. PopcornReel.com. 2007.
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