Review of the film L'Amour, c'est mieux à deux (2010) (2025)

Film Review

L'Amour, c'est mieux à deuxis the kind of good-natured popular French comedy that is all tooeasily dismissed as lightweight American-style trash. Thesituations are predictable, the characters a little too familiar tohave a life of their own, and you can see many of the gags coming froma mile off. Certainly, critical reaction to the film on its firstrelease in France was generally far from positive but this did notprevent it from being a moderate box office hit, attracting an audienceof over a million. American and British reaction to the filmought to be more positive (assuming the distributors are brave enoughto risk a release outside France), given that it conforms far closer tothe Anglo-Saxon notion of humour than the more restrained,self-conscious Gallic alternative. The film is certainly lackingin originality, and some of the jokes are a little past their sell-bydate, but overall it is an enjoyable romp, laugh-out loud funny inplaces, pleasingly unsentimental and surprisingly astute in itsobservations on the difficulty of locating that elusive perfect partnerin the jaded, supposedly unromantic era in which we now find ourselves.

Making his directing debut is the actor-screenwriter Arnaud Lemort, whowrote and directed the film in collaboration with DominiqueFarrugia. It has been more than a decade since Farrugia made hislast film, the 1999 comedy Trafic d'influence (in theinterim he has been busy doing work to promote understanding ofmultiple sclerosis whilst supporting Nicolas Sarkozy's presidentialcampaigns). The ubiquitous comedic actor Franck Dubosc is alsocredited with having a hand in the script, which might account for someof the film's more wild excesses and its unfortunate excursions intotasteless vulgarity. Clovis Cornillac is an obvious (perhaps tooobvious) casting choice for the lead male role, a likeableNeanderthal-type who alternates between extreme crassness and genialsensitivity, the main flaw with the film being that he is too much of acaricature to be taken seriously.

Despite Cornillac's concerted attempts to hog the camera, the film istaken away from him by the entourage of lesser knownstars-in-the-making who surround him. Most impressive is thecharismatic lead actress Virginie Efira, a former Belgian TVpresenter who has spunk, charm and glamour in abundance andclearly has a great future ahead of her in Francophonecinema. As Cornillac's mischievous sidekick, Manu Payet showspromise in his first substantial film role (having made his name on Frenchradio and television), but it is probably the bevy of talented youngactresses who keep popping up at odd moments who have greater impact,in particular Annelise Hesme and Laurence Arne. L'Amour, c'est mieux à deuxmay not be the most sophisticated French rom-com you will ever see butit is refreshingly honest, irresistibly funny in parts and a reasonablysuccessful attempt at bridging the gulf between French and Americancomedy. It won't win an Oscar but it may just put a smile on yourface.

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Next Dominique Farrugia film:
Bis (2015)

Film Synopsis

Michel and Vincent are two men in their mid-to-late thirties who are bothstrongly attracted towards women but have very different ideas about loveand romance. Vincent is the archetypal alpha male who regards the femalesex as mere objects that exist solely for male gratification. Michelnot only respects women, he worships them and behaves like the consummateromantic. Friends since childhood, these two men could hardly be moredifferent, and yet they both have a love life that is equally fraught.Michel's diffidence and Vincent's single-mindedness when it comes to datingmake them both inadequate as lovers, as they discover when Angèleand Nathalie enter their lives. These are two women who could not bebetter suited for them, but Michel and Vincent have yet to discover thattheir approaches to love making are equally doomed to failure. It'stime they both changed their ways, otherwise they will most probably endtheir days as solitary bachelors...

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Similar Films

Here are some other films you may enjoy watching:

Pièce montée (2010)
Quatre étoiles (2006)
L'Amour dure trois ans (2012)
La Fée (2011)
Ensemble, nous allons vivre une très, très grande histoire d'amour... (2010)

Film Credits

Director: Dominique Farrugia,Arnaud Lemort
Script: Franck Dubosc, Arnaud Lemort
Cinematographer: Eric Guichard
Cast: Clovis Cornillac (Michel),Virginie Efira (Angèle),Manu Payet (Vincent),Annelise Hesme (Nathalie),Laurence Arné (Claudine),Shirley Bousquet (Swan),Jonathan Lambert (Ariel),Laurent Lafitte (Sylvain),Sophie Vouzelaud (Hélène),Emmanuel Suarez (Romain),Lancelot Roch (Arvid),Marie Vincent (La mère de Michel),Diane Dassigny (Stella),Clémence Aubry (Candice),Etienne Draber (Le grand-père de Michel),Monique Martial (La grand-mère de Michel),Amandine Dewasmes (L'hôtesse du bar),Laurence Oltuski (La contrôleur SNCF),Catherine Loewe (La maîtresse du grand-père),May Olofsson (La Suédoise)
Country: France
Language: French
Support: Color
Runtime: 100 min
Aka: The Perfect Date

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