Pretty Good

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

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.

In most of his films, Fabrice Luchini plays very ordinary looking little guys--nice but far from a lady-killer. Here, he plays pretty much the same sort of nice, safe guy...and inexplicably, a gorgeous, young free-spirited lady seems to want him! What gives?!When the film begins, Bertrand (Luchini) has been hired to defend a rich lady in a murder case in Monaco. She apparently killed her gigolo boyfriend...a man with mob ties! Bertrand seems like a good choice--he's a well respected lawyer and his image is squeaky clean. However, because of the mob involvement, his client orders a bodyguard, Christophe (Roschdy Zem) to stick to Bertrand and protect him...just in case. While Bertrand isn't comfortable with this at first, he comes to like the very laconic Christophe.Early on his time in Monaco, Bertrand meets Audrey (Louise Bourgoin) at the local news station. She is a VERY chipper and full of life...and oddly seems very interested in Bertrand. In fact, she soon begins to throw herself at him...and you wonder why. Perhaps she's turned on by how successful he is....perhaps she's an evil assassin...perhaps she's just had a head injury! All you know is that she not only wants to be with him...she WANTS him and is more than willing to put out for him! And, at the same time, Christophe, who knows Audrey, is NOT happy about all this and advises Bertrand to keep his distance from her. So what is going to come of all this? See this movie.Generally, I would say that you should watch ANY Luchini film. He is a delightful actor and has a habit of picking really interesting projects and he's one of my favorite Frecnh actors. Even in his less than great films, he is never boring and plays the sort of character the viewer can't help but like. This is THE reason I watched this movie in the first place...Luchini.So is this a really good Luchini film? No. His acting is great and I enjoyed the film BUT the ending is a real downer. Worth seeing, yes....but the ending really left me frustrated.

With a title like "The Girl from Monaco", a picture of a bodacious babe on the cover, and a description about a neurotic lawyer defending a gangster's mother charged with the murder of a gigolo, I figured this would be a crazy comedy... something between "Legally Blonde" and "My Cousin Vinny" but in French. Boy was I wrong.Certain filmgoers react negatively when they don't get what they expect. Me, I don't care as long as it's good. And this movie is definitely good. It begins with enough light-hearted comedy to draw you in at the opening scene. Other good laughs are peppered throughout the first half. But you soon realize that it's all a clever candy-coating, masking a dark, winding story beneath. In that respect, I'd compare it to "Art School Confidential" (2006) or "Jeux d'enfants" (2003) or even "Good Morning Vietnam" (1987) which begin as comedies but soon trick us down a different path.If you go into this film with zero expectations, or better yet, expecting to be led to an unknown destination, I can't imagine you not liking this film. The acting is top notch, creating believable characters who are instantly likable despite their personality quirks. Even the Girl, who is basically a slut of the highest magnitude, comes across as cute, charming and breezy. It's hard not to see elements of the legendary Brigitte Bardot in her unapologetic sexuality.And that's what this movie is really about: expression vs repression, openness vs modesty, freedom vs self-control. And we see the crazy results of people attempting to bridge between the two worlds. This movie is every bit as compelling as the Bardot films that first explored these sexually-charged themes almost 50 years ago. We see that they're still topical today.A quick note about content... Even though this is a very sexual story, it's not too explicit, and I think there's only 1 brief nude scene (the girl topless in bed). Most of the steamy stuff is implied through dialogue.Watch this back-to-back with the Bardot classics "And God Created Woman", "Night Heaven Fell", "Love is My Profession", and so on. Maybe you'll agree it's been a while since a director has been able to capture that same spirit. This movie is so much more than a comedy. Soooo much more.

Director Anne Fontaine ambitiously tries to mix traditional rom-com elements with drama. If she had succeeded, La fille de Monaco could have been a standout movie in 2008. Unfortunately, the end result feels awkward and we are left unable to connect with the movie or the characters.Fabrice Luchini plays Bertrand Beauvois, an elite lawyer coming to Monaco to work a high- profile case. He is assigned a bodyguard, Christophe (Roschdy Zem) and while in Monaco, develops a relationship with a quirky weather girl (Louise Bourgoin) who was formerly romantically involved with the man assigned to protect him. Audrey, our weather forecast girl is considerably younger than Beauvois and her behaviour will remind many viewers of traditional movies where a (usually stuck up) guy sees his life turned a little upside down by a wild woman. It helps that Louise Bourgoin is absolutely stunning. The classic European look you would expect in a Bond Girl. Unfortunately, her acting is not as great as her looks, which makes this Love Triangle of a sort rather inefficient. Luchini and Zem have slightly more chemistry and the bound they form as protector and protected is potentially interesting but never fully realized. The contrasts between the two (social class, education, outlook on life) still provides for the only interesting bits in the film. Unfortunately, the film suddenly and unexpectedly slides into very dramatic territory. I do love when a movie elegantly does this but because of lack of character development, it is difficult to buy the turn of events experienced here. I would be curious to see more of Fontaine's work because I love the general direction and tone this movie was going for, but it failed in the execution. Better casting and more work on the script could have led to a balanced movie that would have been haunting and powerful. But in its actual state, it just ends up being a forgettable movie because it fails to engage us enough to care about the events unfolding.

this is a lightweight comedy that is implausible on many fronts. The lawyer is successful, but way too old for the girl, so it's not clear why she is interested in him. The lawyer is taken in by her (she's stunning), but he throws all caution to the wind and does many things that are out of character, really stupid things. The movie is lightly entertaining with the comedic elements, and with the amazing looks of the girl, who flaunts her body and looks in every scene she's in.SPOILER: Then the movie decides to get serious and it lost me completely. the two men in the film can't resist her, but they both think she's dangerous - "a witch". I won't tell you what happens, but you could easily see this film as a caution against female sexual freedom with the two men punishing her in the end. When it gets away from the comedy, it's a mess.