France Boutique (2003) - film review

A married couple, France and Olivier Mestral, have created their own shopping channel, France Boutique.  After ten years together, the strain on their relationship is beginning to show, and their company’s prospects are also starting to falter.  They are lured into a partnership with Sofia, the head of an Internet shopping company, whose objective is to bankrupt France Boutique so that she can take their airtime.  Will France and Olivier fall into Sofia’s trap…?

Tonie Marshall’s sixth film bears some superficial similarities with her previous success, Vénus beauté (institut), in that both portray tangled love lives within an artificially glamorous setting.  However, in contrast to some of Marshall’s earlier films, France Boutique is so dominated by its sense of parody that it itself feels kitsch and shallow, with few, if any, of its characters having the space to give much more than a two dimensional impression.   As a result, the film is funny and largely entertaining but has neither the maturity nor emotional power that has characterised Marshall’s work to date.   The Viard-Cluzet double act works well, both actors being convincing as shopping channel presenters, not just the naïve caricature you might have expected.  Unfortunately, their contribution is inhibited by a script which fails to make their characters believable.

© James Travers 2005

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