On va s’aimer (2006) - film review

Laurent loves Camille but he can’t bring himself to marry her.  Then he meets Elodie and he discovers what love really is – not the mild cosy affection he has for Camille but a cataclysmic, thunderous all-consuming earthquake of the soul.  The only problem is that Elodie is the girlfriend of Laurent’s best friend, François.  When Elodie leaves him on the spur of the moment, François is sure that she has found another man and hires a private detective to find out who the mysterious party is...

Director Ivan Calbérac followed up his promising début feature Irène (2002) with this somewhat less inspiring romantic comedy which tries to conceal its banality through the now hackneyed device of having the main characters break into song as and when the mood takes them.  The idea of incorporating songs into a dramatic narrative is not new and has been done successfully in the past – Dennis Potter mastered the technique in his TV serials Pennies from Heaven (1978) and The Singing Detective (1986).  Unfortunately, in recent years this idea has been frequently employed merely to lend style to a film that is lacking in substance, and On va s’aimer is a case in point.  In contrast to the Potter serials, here the actors are all called upon to sing their own songs, which may help the sale of ear plugs but does little for the film’s credibility. 

With a cast that includes actors of the calibre of Julien Boisselier and Gilles Lellouche, On va s’aimer could hardly fail.  But, whilst the performances are generally beyond reproach, the film falls short of average in virtually every other department.  The anodyne plot has been seen before in countless other films, TV movies and soap operas (and can probably be traced as far back as Shakespeare).  Some of the jokes are just as well-worn.   Ivan Calbérac still shows promise as a writer and filmmaker but his directorial misjudgements in this film are a disappointment.  On va s’égarer would have been a more appropriate title.

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