The Girl From Monaco English MovieRunning time:94 minutes
Cast:
Fabrice Luchini -
Bertrand
Roschdy Zem -
Christophe Abadi
Louise Bourgoin -
Audrey Varela
Stéphane Audran -
Edith LaSalle
eanne Balibar -
Hélène
Director:
Anne Fontaine
Theatrical Release
7/3/2009
Reviews
A bodyguard hired to look after a lawyer ends up protecting the man from himself in this breezy comedy from France. Bertrand Beauvois (Fabrice Luchini) is a successful fiftysomething attorney who's hired to represent Edith Lasalle (Stéphane Audran), who has been charged with killing a man with ties to the Russian mafia. Edith's adult son, Louis (Gilles Cohen), has been warned that Russian strong-arm men may try to silence his mother and her legal team, so he hires a private security team to protect them and Bertrand finds he's shadowed at all times by stone-faced Christophe Abadi (Roschdy Zem). Bertrand doesn't see the need for Christophe's presence, but when the lawyer has trouble brushing off a former girlfriend he'd rather not see, the bodyguard turns out to be a valuable ally. Bertrand and Christophe strike up a friendship, as the former is increasingly impressed with the latter's street smarts and good judgment, but when Audrey Varela (Louise Bourgoin), a gorgeous woman nearly half Bertrand's age, begins throwing herself at him, Christophe has a hard time convincing his client that something is clearly not right. La Fille de Monaco (aka The Girl From Monaco) received its North American premiere at the 2008 Toronto Film Festival.Initially a breezy screwball comedy in the classic French vein, Anne Fontaine’s latest film veers off into more dramatic territory in its second half. At first, The Girl From Monaco dazzles the audience with a star-studded French cast and, of course, a gorgeous setting. Bertrand is a successful Parisian lawyer who has come to the principality to defend a wealthy woman accused of murdering a man with alleged ties to the Russian mob. To ensure his safety, Bertrand is assigned a bodyguard, Christophe, to shadow him during the case. At first, Bertrand is annoyed by Christophe’s constant intrusion, but the two men eventually develop a kind of friendship. Things quickly change when Bertrand starts receiving overt carnal attention from a local TV-star hottie named Audrey—a free-spirited woman who once had a relationship with Christophe. Bertrand and Christophe’s relationship grows into something more than businesslike when Bertrand makes a sacrifice to aid his bodyguard. Director Fontaine takes the frothy romantic concerns of the movie’s setup and shifts them into darker territory as the main characters’ motivations and loyalties are called into question.The well-ordered emotional life of a middle-aged lawyer is thrown for a loop by a beauteous Monegasque babe in Anne Fontaine's "The Girl From Monaco," a generally entertaining piece of fluff that's kept afloat by a weathered cast including Fabrice Luchini and Roschdy Zem. Good-looking slice of Gallic frippery will make a pleasant addition to fests and film weeks, but lacks the special smarts to put it far into distribution beyond Europe. Pic goes out in Gaul Aug. 20.
Though there are occasional moments when the movie flirts with deeper emotional currents, this is nowhere near (and to be fair, doesn't pretend to be) on a par with Fontaine's best work, the 2001 family drama "How I Killed My Father." Its overall tone suggests a glossier, younger version of her multigenerational romancer, "Oh La La!" (aka "Nouvelle chance").
Bertrand Beauvois (Luchini) is a brilliant, fiftysomething Paris lawyer who's come to Monaco to defend Edith Lasalle (vet Stephane Audran), who's accused of murdering a Russian. Bertrand has an ordered lifestyle, knows he's at the top of his profession and wants everything to stay that way.
Out of the shadows and into his life springs Christophe Abadi (Zem), a tightly wound, deadly serious bodyguard who's been hired to protect him by Lasalle's son, Louis (Gilles Cohen), afraid of a reprisal by Russian hitmen. Script has some early fun as Christophe sticks to Bertrand like glue, checking out every room he enters and establishing a "security perimeter" around his bemused but finally irritated client.
However, Christophe, who hides studly smarts beneath his bodyguard exterior, does come in handy when Bertrand is descended upon by a hot and horny friend (Jeanne Balibar) from Paris. The two men gradually form a friendship of sorts.
The relationship gets an extra layer of glue when Bertrand is targeted by bimbo weather girl Audrey Varela (stunner Louise Bourgoin). As liberated as a young colt, and with a bod kissed by Aphrodite, Audrey soon gets under Bertrand's skin in a way he knows makes no sense but can't resist. All Christophe's warnings fall on deaf ears, though the time eventually comes when Bertrand asks for his friend's help.
Though the theme of a younger nymph thawing out a middle-aged man's reserve is hardly new, pic does add a fresh dimension in the parallel relationship between the lawyer and his bodyguard. Christophe is an ex-street kid of no special education who's taught himself a trade, and the genuine interest and respect he gets from a gent like Bertrand is new in his life.
However, the bond is never convincing enough -- beyond a superficial, lightly comic level -- to make the script's later developments believable. In a similar way, the attraction between Audrey and Bertrand can't bear the weight the story later assigns it.
Film would have been more successful played simply as a light romantic comedy, and it does work occasionally on that level, with the three main thesps nicely underplaying their characters. In a role he can now almost phone in, Luchini is just fine; ditto Zem as the craggy-faced bodyguard. Bourgoin (previously a real-life celebrity weather girl) is impressive in her first dramatic role, garbed in a jaw-dropping selection of costumes, with a combo of directness and pure ambition that generates screen presence.
Tech package is slick, with rich, sunny Monaco shown to its best widescreen advantage and Philippe Rombi's score adding some cream to the cake.
