The Valet

Starring: Gad Elmaleh, Alice Taglioni. Daniel Auteuil, Virginie Ledoyen, Richard Berry, Kristin Scott Thomas

Written by: Francis Veber

Directed by: Francis Veber

Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics

Rated: PG-13

There’s something subtle and brilliant about a group of thugs breaking into some guy’s shabby apartment in Paris to maliciously hang curtains while he’s away at a fashion show with a woman whom he is being paid to pretend to date. It’s a funny moment, but it’s not executed well enough to be truly memorable. Writer/Director Francis Veber’s shiny new French import The Valet suffers from far too many moments like this – moments where Veber’s direction fumbles the details as the script and actors approach a certain level of genius. As it is, it’s an enjoyably forgettable romantic farce destined to blur together with so many others.

Gad Elmaleh stars as Francois – a valet at an expensive restaurant who dreams of marrying a woman he’s loved since childhood. Emilie (Virginie Ledoyen) is this woman, but being very practical she refuses to marry Francois until she can pay off the debts from her bookstore. As an impoverished valet, Francois doesn’t stand a chance of helping Emile until he accidentally walks in on an extramarital affair between Lavasseur, a wealthy businessman (Daniel Auteuil) and a supermodel (Alice Taglioni). Francois is offered a large sum of money to pretend to be the supermodel’s boyfriend, whose life would be ruined if news of his affair ever became public.

With the film’s premise firmly established, it wastes little time getting into the kind of clichéd comic misunderstandings and shenanigans anyone would expect from a contemporary farce. And to this end, the cast performs exceptionally well. Elmaleh has a nice guy charisma about him as a man who’ll put up with anything that gets him closer to the woman he loves while Taglioni is stunning as a well-intentioned supermodel who has fallen for a wealthy, married man and who’ll put up with anything to get closer to him. The interaction between the two is interesting, particularly as it’s clear that there’s no way the two could feasibly fall in love. With the most obvious outcomes out of the way, Awkward Guy and Beautiful Woman become friends and journey into a less than obvious plot structure. While this relationship has been seen countless times before, Taglioni and Elmaleh make the pairing seem adequately fresh.

Daniel Auteuil (Cache, Apres Vous) is particularly fun to watch, playing Lavasseur as a sympathetic antagonist; a wealthy, powerful guy who can’t choose between his wife and his mistress. But the film doesn’t give him much time with the role. Kristin Scott Thomas (The Horse Whisperer, The English Patient) plays Lavasseur’s sophisticated wife who knows a lot more about what he’s doing than he thinks she does. The interaction between the two of them could fill a feature on its own. It’s disappointing to see light comedy diffuse itself between so many characters and for the plot to settle solely on something as trite as a man trying to gain the love of a woman. VS