Don't Believe the Hype

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

Helene, a writer of high brow texts, is a single mother in Paris. She has a young son, Jeremy, a boy that appears to be mature for his tender age, caring for the homeless that use their sidewalk as a home. The man that moves to the apartment across the landing from Helene, is another story.Valentin, is an unemployed man that is occupying the apartment while the owners are away. The other people in the building are furious with his presence among these bourgeois Parisians. At first Helene is somewhat reluctant to let Jeremy be friendly to Valentin. When he finally gets a chance to meet the man, although upset by his being her neighbor, begins to see him in a different light.Helene had a man in her life, although nothing serious. Her sister Roseline is a woman of a certain age looking for romance, but never landing a serious relationship. Helene's life is complicated, but she finds time to try to get Valentin a job, something that backfires on her. After all, he is a man with a lot of pride and dignity. He wants her love, but not charity.A moderate funny comedy from France, "Perfect Match", as it is known in English, offers some good moments. It was written and directed by Anne Marie Etienne, who has the good sense to keep things uncomplicated. She was lucky in getting the services of Carole Bouquet, one of the most beautiful women working in the French cinema. Valentin is played by singer Marc Lavoine, a man that kept reminding us of a French William Dafoe because of his face bone structure. Ms. Bouquet and Mr. Lavoine make good music together in a comedy that while not a must see, is pleasant enough to watch.

Carole Bouquet hasn't had too much luck with apartments in recent years, a couple of years ago she hired some illegal immigrants to renovate her apartment and ended up with debris, this time around she's a writer instead of a lawyer and studying the roots of prejudice so when a squatter in the shape of Marc Lavoine moves into the apartment next door the scene is set for another Benedek and Beatrice scenario in which initial hostility ripens into love. There aren't any real surprises but popular singer Lavoine acquits himself well enough, Bouquet is, as always, excellent and there's a nice line in man-eaters from Florence Foresti. A pleasant diversion.