Heartbreaker (L'arnacoeur - 2010)

Joyce and Janice recommended this French movie about some con artists and we roared laughing throughout much of it today. If you see the trailer or read anything at all you'll learn what the con is, but we didn't and liked being surprised about 15 minutes in. Starring Romain Duris (dancing here as he did in Paris, funny as he was in Moliére (2007)) as Alex, Vanessa Paradis as Juliette, Julie Ferrier (she was in Paris and was the contortionist in Micmacs) as Alex's sister Mélanie, François Damiens as Mélanie's husband Marc, and Héléna Noguerra as Juliette's slutty friend Sophie (the latter two have some very funny bits). Paradis and Noguerra are better known as singers than actresses but Paradis is probably best known for being Johnny Depp's partner and baby mama. 

French TV director Pascal Chaumeil makes a confident feature debut with the scenario (French for screenplay) by Laurent Zeitoun, Jeremy Doner, and Yoann Gromb. 

The original score (listen here by clicking the > play button and don't worry about spoilers) by Klaus Badelt (Gladiator (2000), Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003), The In-Laws (2003), Catwoman, more) is supplemented by lots of source music and other songs, including Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go and The Time of My Life from the movie Dirty Dancing (on this site you can hear another of the songs - I recommend you do not watch the trailer, which is in French without subtitles, because it gives away many of the best moments) (there's a partial list of the other songs).

The gorgeous scenery in Morocco, Paris, Cannes, and Monte Carlo is shot by Thierry Arbogast (La Femme Nikita (1990), The Professional (1994), the excellent and lush Ridicule (1996) and The Fifth Element (1997), and Catwoman (2004) with Halle Berry, among many). 

Yesterday's paper had a rave review of this movie reprinted from the Los Angeles Times, though on rottentomatoes it only scores in the 70s. We think most of you will love it, unless, like Bart Simpson (or is it Homer?), you hate subtitles. We like subtitles. Sometimes they help us learn swear words in other languages!

Congratulations to me. I began the blog on September 3, 2008 and have covered 300 movies since then (for the alphabetical list click the link at the right under "Index of babetteflix posts").