Surprisingly incoherent and boring

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

"My Wife is an Actress" shocked me before I went to the theater: my husband wanted to see it! That hasn't happened with a chick flick since "Legally Blonde." I thought there was a Pretty Woman involved, but he protested, "What, you don't think I read reviews?" I plead the fifth on that one. "Ma femme est une actress "is, probably coincidentally, a comic take on a British furor over last year's "Intimacy," where a husband/journalist spoke out on not being jealous, well, not really jealous, when his wife/actress films explicit sex scenes in a serious movie. Here, writer/director/star Yvan Attal (as "Yvan," an adorable sports reporter, who manages to be a guy's guy without being obnoxiously macho about it) plays out the same situation with his real-life wife Charlotte Gainsbourg (as "Charlotte", with irresistible charm and equanimity).While the film isn't just from Yvan's point of view, we certainly do see the difficulties of living with a Famous Person. He's grounded in real life by his comic relief Jewish sister and gentile brother-in-law whose arguing over their impending child gets annoying after awhile and starts raising some stereotype hackles by the end, though is still amusing. Even as Yvan descends into jealousy as he tries to delve into the psyche of actors, the comic tone is deftly kept up, especially as Charlotte deals with both him and her lecherously attractive co-star, the ever smooth Terence Stamp (with a particularly funny take on filming nude love scenes amidst a large crew). So here's another chick flick from a guy's viewpoint that can work. (originally written 8/11/2002)

Some people who commented the movie here seem to have misunderstood a few things. I don't think Charlotte cheats on Yvan, I don't know where some people here got the idea, but even if we can see she contemplates the idea, she never does it, which shows an understanding of her husband predicament. Also, Yvan's sister and her husband are only discussing whether their BABY should be circumcised. Never was it mentioned that the circumcision would include the husband as some here have written. Some were thinking that this story had nothing to do in that movie but I think it has everything to do with it, since I think this movie is about couples that deal and overcome problems created by the very nature of the individuals in the couple, and this can exist in many various ways. It is about how you can deal with something that is not changeable (Charlotte is an actress and isn't going to change that, and Nathalie is Jewish and it is not going to change, she actually clings onto that in a very selfish - she ponders her baby's interest, his very identity while chainsmoking throughout her pregnancy, to the ridiculous despair of some reviewers - and ridiculous way - her own father calls her a crazy lot...)The story is therefore more about how Yvan learns to deal with the fact that his wife is something that he won't be able to change, hence his adaptation.This is a grown-up romantic comedy. Love isn't a given forever once you marry, as all American romantic comedies seem to tell (they mostly describe - in a very predictable way - how love begins, never how it is nurtured, therefore giving the feeling that American romantic comedies are designed for tweens who have never been in love before). This seems to be Yvan Attal's main concern judging from his other movie "Ils se marierent et eurent beaucoup d'enfants" (the traditional last sentence of french fairy tales): Falling in love is not really difficult, it is actually very easy as illustrated in this movie by the encounter with the very lovable Geraldine, the theatre student. STAYING in love IS the difficult part, and this is what this movie is all about...Also, some cultural references may have not be understood by people not familiar with France (Ophelie Winter in the train, Nagui, Marc Lavoine and Catherine Lara in the restaurant are all famous folks in France, the reference to some of the Paris Saint Germain football club fans) and may have made some scenes a bore while they were actually pretty funny for those able to fully grasp the situation.Overall, an interesting subject, nicely done and a charming cast (again unlike others have said the actress didn't need to look like J-Lo and the actor like Brad Pitt to believe in their mutual attraction. Like only good-looking people can seduce...)

"My Wife is an Actress" is all about a man who becomes jealous of his wife's handsome costar when she's required to do boudoir scenes. A so-so romantic comedy with precious little romance, this flick fails to focus on the central question which asks: How do you know if your wife is cheating de facto, in heart or mind, while she performs in bed with another man for the cameras? Instead, the film ruminates about the jealous husband and the tentative wife with occasional excursions into a whole side matter about circumcision which contributes nothing while managing to conjure up a few delightfully clever scenes. With good art, excellent camera work, and solid performances, this half English, half French flick makes for a nominal subtitled watch best saved for broadcast. (B-)

Charlotte Gainsbourg has starred in `The Little Thief' in French and `The Cement Garden' in English and in about 26 other movies. She's been in films at least since she was thirteen, so it seems surprising she's only 31. Her parents were Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin, both French cinema and pop culture icons. In this movie with the straightforward title, `My Wife Is an Actress,' her longtime companion and the father of their child, Yvan Attal, directs her and plays her husband in a story about an actress named Charlotte (who's famous) and her sports writer husband named Yvan (who's not), and the problems he has with this simple fact: she's a movie star; he's not.It might have been more truthful to call the movie `My Wife Is More Famous Than I Am,' because Yvan Attal isn't an unknown sports writer; he's a movie actor too, and he's been in 23 movies himself, including the excellent `Love Without Pity' (`Un monde sans pitié, 1989), directed by Eric Rochant. He's just not as famous as Charlotte, and this is the first full-length film he's directed. What's it like to be constantly reminded that your wife is more popular and better known at the same thing that you do? That might be a more interesting subject, if less suitable for light romantic comedy, which is what `Ma femme est une actrice' aims to be. Yvan Attal has cast himself as a kind of everyman, a little guy.Regardless of your occupation, you might be jealous, if your wife were making out with actors in front of the camera all the time. That's what gets through to Yvan – the movie Yvan -- when an annoying fellow introduced to him at a bar by his tiresome obsessively Jewish sister, Nathalie (Noémie Lvovsky) keeps harping on the issue. If Ivan had cast himself as an actor, he might be more understanding; and in the movie, he takes acting lessons to gain more sympathy for Charlotte's career. His success auditioning as a flower bursting into bloom leads him into a little affair with a young aspiring actress – but the affair doesn't bloom; it just leads to a misunderstanding with Charlotte.The base line feeling the movie deals with -- annoyance at having a famous movie star wife -- comes though strongest in the early scenes when Charlotte and Yvan are going around Paris and she's constantly being asked for her autograph -- and he's not. It isn't good for his ego that while he can't reserve a table before midnight at a restaurant, if she comes on the phone there's one ready at nine.The jealousy Yvan feels about Charlotte's playing nude love scenes is a concern that goes deeper, but this is developed indirectly, by having Charlotte get bothered by the idea herself after talking to Yvan, then making a fuss about it at Pinewood Studios in England, leading to a colorful scene. While the London film is being shot, Yvan keeps going back and forth on the train to visit her. This is where his `sports writer' role evaporates. He exists only as a jealous husband. Eventually he has an encounter with his wife's British costar, an older actor with sex appeal -- "John" – Terrence Stamp. Perhaps there is nothing more in danger of seeming inauthentic, or more difficult to make interesting, than essentially playing yourself, as Gainsbourg and Stamp, and to a lesser extent Attal, are doing here.I remembered Charlotte Gainsbourg as a spoiled, pouting creature, and was afraid I wouldn't want to see her as herself. In fact she's charming, light as air, always conveying the impression of the smooth professional, and it's fascinating to watch somebody who can act as fluently in English as she can in French. It's an extra attraction to see Terence Stamp playing an aging English actor. But he's so laid back about his courtship of Charlotte that all the energy goes out of the scenes he's in.Nathalie, the ultra-Jewish sister, becomes the movie's biggest annoyance. She seems to be present to make us aware of the fact that Yvan's Jewish (Attal was born in Tel Aviv), a fact that has nothing to do with his character. Nathalie has a `goy' husband and she's pregnant. They are constantly arguing about whether the husband should get circumcised and the baby, if a boy, should be. A tired enough issue, made more so by its constant repetition. This running unfunny joke is made even less funny by the fact that Nathalie, the pregnant woman, always has a cigarette in her hand or in her mouth, and continues to smoke like a chimney even with the newborn baby in the room. Another annoyance of this movie is that it contains some homophobic and anti-Arab remarks, and they're not ironic, they're just there.The tousled haired Yvan is appealing enough to arouse sympathy for his plight – at first. His character has only one note, sung over and over. The movie lasts only 95 minutes, but seems about 35 minutes too long.`My Wife Is an Actress' begins well and deserves credit for approaching its topic head-on, without any dodges other than Yvan's becoming a `sports writer' rather than a less famous actor. The problem is attacked persistently, but there's no solution found. One ends with the feeling that this was a kind of therapy for Yvan Attal. He does get pretty close to his subject. Perhaps he was too close to it already. If he'd gotten any closer, things might have gotten nasty.