L'Amour aux trousses (2005)
Directed by Philippe de Chauveron

Film Review

For his second feature after Les Parasites (1999), director Philippe de Chauveron goes into retro mode with a vengeance and takes his inspiration from popular French comedy-thrillers of the 1960s and '70s, notably those helmed by the French master of the genre, Georges Lautner (Ne nous fâchons pas). Throw in some liberal, none-too-subtle allusions to American TV cop shows of the 1970s (Starsky and Hutch, Hawaii Five O, etc.)  and you end up with a cute pastiche which is entertaining but somewhat lacking in substance.   The stack of well-worn clichés is just about the only thing holding the uninventive narrative together, and whilst de Chauveron directs the film with the appropriate degree of brio, he has a hard job papering over the failings of a poorly cobbled together script.

Thankfully, Jean Dujardin and Pascal Elbé are on hand to salvage what they can of this stumbling and fairly predictable comedy.  Dujardin had by this stage in his career already made a name for himself in another comedy, Brice de Nice (2005) and would become a major star of French cinema following OSS 117: Le Caire, nid d'espions (2006). The part of Franck in L'Amour aux trousses looks almost like a dry run for that of agent Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath in Dujardin's subsequent OSS 117 films and this kind of role (a canny parody of the smug and invincible action hero) is clearly the kind of role in which the actor is at his best.

The Dujardin-Elbé pairing works a treat and calls to mind similar sparky double acts in previous French comedies (mostly those authored by Francis Veber - La Chèvre (1981), for example).  This amazing duo make the most of the few really funny lines the film has to offer but you can't help wishing they had been given a better script - there's far more humour to be found in their character's mutually antagonistic body language than in what comes out of their mouths.  The rest of the cast (Claude Brasseur in particular) are pretty well wasted - the female lead Caterina Murino spends most of the film looking like she is auditioning for a cheap porno movie, or at least acting out a puerile adolescent fantasy. Like his lead actor, de Chauveron would go on to much bigger and better things, following one successful comedy L'Élève Ducobu (2011) with a box office sensation, Qu'est-ce qu'on a fait au Bon Dieu? (2014).

Film Synopsis

Paul and Franck are two French police officers in the narcotics squad who are the closest of friends.  In the course of tracking down a dangerous drugs dealer one of their fellow officers is shot dead and Paul ends up with a serious leg injury.  Nine months later, the duo resume their partnership, with Paul blissfully unaware that Franck has been pursuing a torrid love affair with his Italian wife Valeria.  When Paul learns the truth he is so incensed that he can hardly stop himself from killing his supposed buddy.  Franck does his best to downplay the affair (not knowing that Valeria is pregnant with his child) but he has far more to worry about when the two are assigned to their most dangerous mission yet...