Francis Veber comes up with another winner in this Daniel Auteuil fueled sit-com about the rich, unfaithful husband about to show he doesn’t have what it takes to lead a successful double life. Unfortunately for Auteuil’s character, Pierre, his equally rich and even more powerful wife Christine (Kristin Scott Thomas---“The English Patient”) is not in the mood for French philandering.
Even worse, she is the major stockholder in Pierre’s huge and very profitable manufacturing firm. Divorcing her will mean not only marginal humiliation for the playboy wannabe, but almost certain ruin at the hands of the board of directors.
Into this walks the perfect fall guy, François, played to a tee by César nominated Gad Elmaleh (“Chouchou”). François has just been spurned by his true love because of her money problems and lacks the 35,000 francs it will take to bail out her struggling book store.
When his picture is accidentally snapped with Pierre and beautiful mistress Elena (Alice Taglioni) by the ever-present paparazzi, Pierre is panic stricken at the thought of his iron maiden wife seeing them the papers.
But the quick-thinking Pierre has a plan...sort of. He must convince Elena to move in with François to throw the press off for long enough to buy time.
Of course we in the audience know he will never figure out what to do, because he is hopeless. But thanks to a great performance by Auteuil don’t care---watching him fail turns out to be better than watching him succeed could ever be.
While François is nursing his broken heart and Elena is determining how far she can trust Pierre, François and Elena start a little French cooking of their own. At the same time, iron maiden and cheated wife Christine is having some serious detectives shadow her meddling man as well as the naive François to find the chink in the plan that will help her crucify Pierre once and for all.
If all of this sounds familiar, it is.
If you saw director/screenwriter Francis Veber’s hilarious “The Dinner Game” or his immortal “La Cage aux folles” (“Birds of a Feather,” remade into the Elaine May screenplay, Robin Williams smash, “The Birdcage”) you know what Veber can do with hopelessly dumb, but very lovable, male characters who just can’t seem to get a break. Valet François is joined by his roommate slacker and Pierre in executing a series of fairly predictable pratfalls that show how dumb guys can be. While wily women, sure enough, get the last laugh.
If predictable, fun anyway, as Auteuil seems to be genuinely enjoying himself after his guilt-ridden role in the recent creeper “Caché.” He melds with his new persona perfectly, showing blank looks of “What Me Worry” like a born again Alfred E. Neuman as his nefarious dealings gradually paint him into a corner from which dignified escape is impossible.
The acting, directing and screenwriting for “Valet” are excellent. The dialog was fun throughout the film with only a few let-ups now and then. The film is too much of a TV sit-com format---perhaps not enough material to make a fully developed film.
At only 1 hr and 25 minutes, it is short and sweet. The ending is both good and bad. It might have left too many loose ends that could have been developed into entertaining sub-plots, such as the scorned wife more thoroughly trouncing her unfaithful husband, or perhaps the roommate or the super-model finding romance. As it is, we don't know what happened to half of the characters. In a way this is good---food for thought, the comedy that keeps on giving. But the film seems abruptly truncated.
That being said, audiences looking for the lighter side of Daniel Auteuil will enjoy this film, in which he actually seems to be having fun. And Kristin Thomas is perfect as the tough-as-nails woman on a mission. The two of them have a genuinely comedic chemistry.
The Valet (La Boulette)
Opens: April 20, 2007 MPAA: Rated PG-13 for sexual content and language
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