Chercher le garçon (2012)
Directed by Dorothée Sebbagh

Film Review

This first full-length film from director Dorothée Sebbagh offers a humorous take on the latest dating phenomenon (via the internet) but fails spectacularly to gel into a coherent whole.  With a microscopic budget (which is painfully evident), Sebbagh takes a simple premise and mines it to total exhaustion, delivering a seemingly endless succession of sketches which become unbearably repetitive before the film even reaches its midpoint.  The scenes where the characters meet for the first time were improvised - whilst this may add to the film's spontaneity it also heightens the boredom factor, as the actors seem incapable of coming up with anything other than predictable platitudes and inanities.  It is hard to engage with the central character (even if she is played by the charming Sophie Cattani) as Sebbagh makes no attempt to give her an identity.  Chercher le garçon has some promising ideas behind it (not least of which is the distressing thought that love has become a commodity like any other), but Sebbagh singularly fails to make the most of these and instead delivers a limp romantic comedy of the most aggravating kind.

Film Synopsis

Emilie is 35, lives in Marseille, and still hasn't found the man who is right for her.  One New Year's Eve, she decides to take matters in hand by enrolling on an internet dating site named Meet Me.  With so many members on this site, she is bound to find someone who will meet her requirements - if only she knew what she was looking for.  Yes, there are plenty of jokers on the site, boors and idiots that Emilie wouldn't touch with a barge pole.  But there are also a fair number of good-old fashioned romantics, men who, like her, are merely looking for that elusive all-consuming passion (or so she thinks).  Emile pursues her quest for her perfect soul mate in cyberspace, completely unaware of the surprise that is waiting for her back in the real world...