Toi et moi (2006) - film review

Ariane has a habit of transposing the complicated love lives of those around her into the trashy love stories that she writes for a women’s magazine.   Her current preoccupation is Lena, her half-sister, who has started taking an interest in Mark, a fellow musician.  Lena already has a boyfriend, François, but the spark went out of that relationship long ago and Lena is reluctant to let it go any further.  When she is not imagining a happy future for Lena, Ariane reflects on her own disappointed love life.  She has fallen for Farid, a wealthy businessman who insists that he cannot settle down with her.  She fails to notice that her true admirer is Pablo, a Spanish builder...

Toi et moi is Julie Lopes-Curval’s second full length film, following her highly rated 2002 drama, Bord de mer.  It offers an unashamedly feminine view of romantic love, contrasting the kind of relationship a woman thinks she wants (all roses and sweet pillow talk) with the duvet-hogging reality.  The narrative is cut up with girly photo-novel inserts in a way that is both funny and irritating, an unnecessary stylistic embellishment for what is essentially a conventional French romantic drama.  Largely on account of a lacklustre script, the film drags and feels a lot longer than it is, in spite of some engaging performances from a very talented cast.


© James Travers 2007

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