Stylish but barely mediocre overall

I like Black Panther, but I didn't like this movie.

A different way of telling a story

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

Negative: Forced to sit through five trailer adverts for other movies. Positives: Note the spelling difference in the name. Lots of British type humor bordering between a little shocking and funny. So what happens when a British couple end up living in the France of Flaubert and by coincidence they share many of the same attributes as well as a similarity in name to that famous novel? Add a next-door baker as a storyteller who is also infatuated with the mystique of women from those period novels. "Gemma Bovery" offers a contemporary interpretation that I found more interesting than other recent adaptations of the story especially with regards to manipulating men. "Wants everything from love and is always disappointed." When life doesn't match her fantasy one wonders if she would have changed or would she have eventually recidivated? Great endings as her men lead to her humorously ironic downfall and finally the introduction of a famously storied Russian woman.Surprising song (an odd fit) shows up in the movie and in the credits - "Jimmy" with no identifiable credit. Anyway, from a mongrel American/European blues/folk/rock team, "Moriarty".

'Gemma Bovery' is a clever re-working of 'Madame Bovary', Flaubert's 19th century literary masterpiece about the amorous adventures of a provincial doctor's wife. This contemporary version begins with a bookish baker observing the arrival of a London couple in his Normandy town. He immediately becomes obsessed with the lovely Gemma, and starts seeing parallels to his favorite novel after he catches sight of her flirting with an aristocratic law student outside his shop. When the doughy merchant deduces the affairs of 'la belle Anglaise' are spiraling towards disaster, he attempts to save her from the sad fate of the fictional heroine, but his interference only increases the complications of her love life.Director Anne Fontaine's film is nicely balanced between comedy and drama, tending towards the latter, although the end product is closer to a fluffy confection than a heavyweight main course. Gemma Arterton's piquant performance in the lead role holds the film together, as her straying spouse remains a sympathetic character despite the infidelities. Their work is complemented by the entire cast - especially Fabrice Luchini who turns in a satisfyingly starchy portrayal of the busybody bread-maker - along with some luscious cinematography of the fertile French countryside and the mouth-watering Ms Arterton.

GEMMA BOVERY is essentially a paean to the hotness of Gemma Arteton and to classic French literature. The plot sees the ordered village life of a former publisher, who semi-retired to became a baker in Normandy due to his love of Flaubert's "Madame Bovery" which is set there, turned upside down by the arrival of an English couple. She is beautiful and bored and her surname is Bovery. Soon her life begins to mirror the novel, as she seeks out affairs to deal with her ennui. Worried by this - because he knows the book ends with her suicide - the baker/publisher begins to try and discreetly guide her, with mixed results. Only the French could make something as insubstantial as this - and then make it work. Although billed as a comedy-drama, it's neither very funny nor entirely dramatically successful, but it sustains itself with a low- key middle class charm. Village life is gorgeously portrayed and most importantly the film succeeds in making you care about what is essentially a silly woman making bad decisions; like many French films it's all about the gloriousness of women, which Arteton more than lives up to. A small charmer.

Let me start this review by saying that I am not remotely familiar with the literature character referenced here many time, so I will just stick with the movie and not relate to the book. It is certainly possible to watch and enjoy this movie that way as well, especially as Luchini's character gives all the information to the viewer that one needs to know to see why he draws that parallel between his new neighbor and the literary character.All in all, I think this is an okay movie, which gets considerably better in the second half. The first half just feel like a cheesy chick flick to be honest with the usual stuff. The main character's dog runs to the new neighbor's dog and that is how they get involved with each other, and the absolute negative highlight of the film: a scene in which Arterton's character gets stung by a bee and Luchini's character needs to open her shirt and suck the poison out of the wound. Other than that the film is all about Luchini. If you know him, he is one of France's most gifted actors these days and easily makes the film. Especially the darker sides of his character are portrayed very well. Gemma Arterton is a good choice for the role and surely fits 100% looks-wise. Unfortunately, though, her character was written with really not much depth. She is just beautiful to look at and always the center of attention of every male character in this film, including Jason Flemyng who gave a good portrayal here, probably the best from all of Gemma's partners. The other two were rather forgettable, especially Patrick who the film could have done completely without.The ending was a bit controversial. I am not sure if I liked that Arterton's character did in fact die just like in the novel, but the fact that it came from the bread made it interesting, just like the fireworks as a huge contrast to her death. The death itself, however, had almost no emotional gravity to me to be honest and that is probably quite a failure. Why did the filmmakers not succeed in making this more impactful? Actually the three men walking next to each other at the funeral afterward, was almost more significant. Another thing I found strange was how the son of Luchini's character trolls his father about the new neighbors near the end. Never during the film I had the impression that neither the son nor the wife were really getting what is going on with Luchini's character, so this felt a bit out of place. The dialog with the new neighbors at the end was awkwardly funny though.Finally, let me say that I would only really recommend this for fans of Gemma Arterton or French cinema. Director Anne Fontaine is known for strong female characters in the center of her movies ("Coco avant Chanel", "Chloe", "Nathalie"), but here I am not so sure about it. I certainly preferred her previous film "Adore".