Raphaël (Edouard Baer) is an anonymous ghost writer of celebrity autobiographies who pretends to be satisfied with his lot. He dates architect Muriel (Marie-Josée Croze), whose forthright manner starts to make him confront his unfulfilled dreams. When he is commissioned to write the autobiography of boorish footballer Kevin (Clovis Cornillac), he discovers that the woman he fancied in university, Claire (Alice Taglioni), is Kevin's girlfriend, and he decides to worm his way into her heart.
Writer-director Laurent Tirard and co-writer Grégoire Vigneron stay well within the path well-travelled by many other urban romantic comedies: boy meets girl, they break up, then they make up. What's entertaining is the journey and the sights along the way. The good and funny bits comes from establishing the characters, and Raphaël and Muriel's courtship; Edouard Baer's makes Raphaël an amiable, slightly repressed introvert who is easy to relate to, while Marie-Josée Croze is great as the more direct and perky Muriel. The main plot where Raphaël (ineptly) tries to seduce Claire is a little offputting and underdeveloped, and the side plots involving Raphaël's mates, journalist Jeff (Eric Berger) and banker Max (Jean-Michel Lahmi), don't go very far and are resolved a bit abruptly.
Crowd pleasing, uncluttered romantic comedy.
French with English subtitles.
3 out of 5 stars.
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