Un homme à la hauteur
It always intrigues me how French cinema can take an implausible story and produce a film that is in many respects credible, if not perhaps entirely believable. Here we have on the one hand Diane, an attractive lawyer who's three years divorced from her husband Bruno, and on the other a suitor, Alexandre, who's charming and handsome but only 4' 6" tall!
Alexandre witnesses a tiff between Diane and Bruno in a restaurant that causes Diane to leave her phone behind. He phones her, addressing her as 'Home', the name in the phone's address book, and charms her sufficiently to arrange a date. But Diane is in for a mild shock when he arrives. But he is just as charming and amusing as when he was on the phone, and seemingly liked by everybody. In fact she finds herself fascinated by him.
Diane and Bruno are partners at their law firm and he is constantly trying to woo her back, despite his serial infidelity. He ridicules Diane once he finds out who she is seeing. Their office assistant, Coralie, adds additional humour to the situation as she takes messages, and voicing opinions between the two of them.
The story unfolds with Diane becoming more and more attracted to Alexandre while battling the prejudices of society and a less than helpful response from her mother. It all becomes too much, but she's now truly in love with Alexandre and completely torn between her feelings and the harshness of society. But don't worry, the outcome is fairly classic rom-com - French style.
Of course this is all so very unlikely but a digitally miniaturised Jean Dujardin and the very attractive Virginie Efira provide us with just over an hour and a half and light entertainment.
The critics haven't been too kind and nor has audience reaction been that great. Plus, of course, there's been the inevitable reaction to using an actor of normal stature to play a dwarf-like figure along with some more general PC qualms about the story line itself. But the French don't seem overly concerned with such things.
Alexandre witnesses a tiff between Diane and Bruno in a restaurant that causes Diane to leave her phone behind. He phones her, addressing her as 'Home', the name in the phone's address book, and charms her sufficiently to arrange a date. But Diane is in for a mild shock when he arrives. But he is just as charming and amusing as when he was on the phone, and seemingly liked by everybody. In fact she finds herself fascinated by him.
Diane and Bruno are partners at their law firm and he is constantly trying to woo her back, despite his serial infidelity. He ridicules Diane once he finds out who she is seeing. Their office assistant, Coralie, adds additional humour to the situation as she takes messages, and voicing opinions between the two of them.
The story unfolds with Diane becoming more and more attracted to Alexandre while battling the prejudices of society and a less than helpful response from her mother. It all becomes too much, but she's now truly in love with Alexandre and completely torn between her feelings and the harshness of society. But don't worry, the outcome is fairly classic rom-com - French style.
Of course this is all so very unlikely but a digitally miniaturised Jean Dujardin and the very attractive Virginie Efira provide us with just over an hour and a half and light entertainment.
The critics haven't been too kind and nor has audience reaction been that great. Plus, of course, there's been the inevitable reaction to using an actor of normal stature to play a dwarf-like figure along with some more general PC qualms about the story line itself. But the French don't seem overly concerned with such things.