New Delhi: The 2010 French rom-com 'Heartbreaker' finally reached India with really bad dubbing. All the witty French puns are probably at the bottom of the sea in Monaco and all we are stuck with is a 'done to death' predictable love story. The dubbed version seems to have lost all the wit.
Rumour has it that 2012 Bollywood film 'Jodi Breakers' is a copy of this film’s plot – lets just hope Bollywood comes up with something a tad bit more innovative - kitschy, brazen, bizarre, don't care – but something innovative.
Directed by Pascal Chaumeil, 'Heartbreaker' stars Romain Duris, Vanessa Paradis, Julie Ferrier and Francois Damiens.
As the story goes - Alex (Romain Duris), his sister Melanie (Julie Ferrier) and her husband Marc (Francois Damiens), operate a business where they break up relationships where the woman are unhappy and they don't know about it. Alex defines three kinds of women – ones who are happy, ones who are unhappy and willing to deal with it and ones who are unhappy and unaware of it. The trio’s business lies with the third party. Alex plays the suave womanizer who makes the women fall for him and tells them just after a kiss that it is too late for him to find love – but they can go ahead to find someone who makes them feel as alive as Alex does.
The elaborate ploy, the practiced dialogues work almost always for the trio – till Alex is pitted against his odds. He is hired by Van Der Becq (Jacques Frantz) to stop the marriage of his daughter Juliette (Vanessa Paradis) to Jonathan Alcott (Andrew Lincoln). In a dire need of money to pay off his loans even though Juliette is not unhappy – Alex takes on the task. He pretends to be Juliette's bodyguard while she plans her wedding in Monaco.
Thus starts the typical 'rom-com' series of incidents, pre-planned moments, romance in a few off moments and the couple are in love – Alex tries to use his trademark lines on Juliette and fails. The expert is done for this time. Predictable.
Alex will get his love – every wisemans' son doth know – such is the trajectory of ALL rom-coms. In this domain – 'Heartbreaker' has nothing new to offer. But the movie is pleasant, it is refreshing to see the French actors with their unconventional good looks romance on screen and the locales are stunning. The contrived moments of comedy between Melanie and Marc are quite funny – but not hilarious. Vanessa Paradis looks stunning in certain scenes and Romain Duris is charming even though at times he looks like a watered down scruffy version of Ethan Hawke.
A good movie to curl up with on a cold afternoon – but you won't miss much if you don't catch it. Watch it with the girls – it works as most rom-coms do. 2010 has seen smarter rom-coms – perhaps it does more justice in French.
Here's hoping that the Bollywood version is better.
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