Jeux d’enfants is a French romantic film drama first released in 2003, directed by Yann Samuell.  The film stars Guillaume Canet, Marion Cotillard, Thibault Verhaeghe, Joséphine Lebas-Joly and Emmanuelle Grönvold.  It has also been released under the title: Love Me If You Dare.  Our overall rating for this film is: mediocre.


Aware that his mother is dying from cancer, an eight-year old boy Julien strikes up a friendship with a young Polish girl of his own age, Sophie.  The two children cope with their daily traumas by playing a dare game, which inevitably gets them into trouble.  Ten years later, Julien and Sophie remain firm friends, but their dare games have taken on a cruel edge.  After a year’s separation, they meet up again.  Julien announces he is in love and intends to get married.  Sophie is shocked when she realises she is not to be Julien’s intended and tries to wreck his wedding.  Another ten years pass by before Julien, now comfortably settled with a wife, a family and a mortgage, realises who he really loves.  Will he ever see Sophie again...?

Yann Samuell’s bizarre romantic comedy begins as what looks like an apprentice filmmaker’s take on Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain (2002), complete with irritating zooms, over-saturated photography and children acting unconvincingly as adults.  Once you manage to get past this off-putting prelude, the film settles into what looks more like traditional French comedy drama, albeit one which takes a few uncomfortable black comedic turns.  Sympathetic performances from Guillaume Canet and Marion Cotillard provide some emotional realism and prevent the whole thing from collapsing into a wash of forced sentimentality and whimsy.  Whilst Jeux d’enfants can be irksome in places, it is also strangely compelling and even entertaining.  Unfortunately, the ambiguous double ending robs the film of the magic it somehow manages to summon up in its last twenty or so minutes.

© James Travers 2006

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