Heartbreaker

After a series of disappointing American movies it is a nice change of pace to go to a foreign language film to cleanse the palette. It is not because foreign films are any better, oftentimes the production values are quite inferior. It is because they are so different that they become refreshing, especially when they are French comedies. There have been several French comedies lately that have been made into American films but somehow they did not survive the translation. Sometimes you have to go back and see the original.

Heartbreaker is a French romantic comedy starring Romain Duris and Vanessa Paradis (Johnny Depp’s wife). It is about a unique team that hires themselves out to purposely break-up couples. The team consists of Alex, Romain Duris, his sister Melanie, Julie Ferrier and her husband Marc, Francois Damiens. Let’s say that you are a rich man and you hate the guy that your daughter is marrying. You would hire this team, and using a combination of research and psychology they would break up the romance and stop the wedding.

This little band of heartbreakers is a principled lot. They will never break up a couple who are truly in love and Alex as the seducer will never sleep with the target. To quote his brother-in-law, they are there to open eyes, not legs. Everything is achieved through the art of seduction. Their job is to show the young lady that she has other options and in some cases exposing her lover’s true personality helping her to move on.

Like spies, Alex is the frontman while his sister and brother-in-law provide the background support. Marc is a whiz at surveillance and Melanie is a master of disguise and languages. Alex will take on a character, interject himself into the target’s life and Marc and Melanie take care of all the details. Once Alex gets the target to fall in love with him, he graciously sets her free. You see, he is a broken-man and there is no hope for him. While she is young, vital and deserves so much more. If she goes back to the boyfriend, the client gets a full refund. But this has never happened, yet.

Heartbreaker is a lot of fun when Alex meets Juliette Van Der Beck, Vanessa Paradis. She is a handful and immune to his charm, but since the money from this gig is crucial to pay off his loan-shark, he breaks out his A Game and pulls out all the stops. This means ditching his tried and true routine’s and going on personal instinct. This makes him vulnerable to her charms and the situation gets dangerous.

Julie Ferrier and Francios Damiens are hysterical as a happily married couple who make their living breaking other people up. Marc is in awe of Alex and his powers of seduction. He is anxious to emulate them and enhance his own skills. Melanie is content to let him try. She finds his efforts amusing and endearing.

I haven’t enjoyed a romantic comedy this much in awhile. Especially the scene where Alex recreates a number from the film Dirty Dancing. He has never seen the film but it is Juliette’s favorite. He must study all of Patrick Swayze’s moves in order to woo her. When he finally gets his chance to bust out his dance moves it is both funny, romantic and completely effective. Even in France, those dance moves still work.

I’m pretty sure that once again Hollywood will take this film and do an American remake. It could work if they cast it well, avoid the cliches, and keep the appropriate tone. But I recommend you see this one now. It is fun, refreshing and a nice change of pace. Think of it as a cinematic vacation. A little change of scenery will do you good.

Rating: First Run Heartbreaker will seduce you