Reviewed by Miriam Brent
Stars Alain Chabat, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Bernadette Lafont,
Wladimir Yordanoff, Gregoire Oestermann, Véronique Barrault, Marie-Armelle Deguy, Katia Lewkowicz, Louise Monot
Written by Alain Chabat & Philippe Mechelen
Certification UK 15 | France: U
Runtime 90 minutes
Directed by Eric Lartigau
The French aren't particularly well known for their filmic comedy. Erudite intellectual thrillers, yes; sidesplitting humour, most definitely not. Unfortunately, the premise behind I Do does little to convince sceptics like myself otherwise, treading as it does the well-worn path of the clichéd rom-com.
Luis (Chabat) is a 40-something perfumer, and the ultimate bachelor. Tired of his behaviour, Luis' gaggle of sisters and overbearing mother decide enough is enough, and order him to find a wife to do his washing and ironing for him. Unable to face this prospect, he does as any self-respecting man in a rom-com would... he hires a woman to act as his wife-to-be, Emma (Gainsbourg). You can guess the rest. Predictable in the extreme, I Do is a somewhat disjointed affair that swings from the opening cringe-worthy catch-up of Luis' 'story so far', to weak attempts at tenderness towards the end. Awkward plot devices are regularly shoehorned in, not least the tenuous reason for Emma's decision to take part in the plan in the first place.
Where the film really falls down, though, is the glaring lack of chemistry between its two central characters. While you know the ending without having to watch the film, there's little to flag up any deeper connection building between Emma and Luis, so when the inevitable happens it has all the subtlety of a steamroller. Despite this, Charlotte Gainsbourg is still mesmerising in her role as the 'fake' bride — if only for her ability to carry off the gawky ladette-thing while maintaining sex appeal in spades. Chabat, too, puts in a decent performance, but an uninspired script fails to capitalise on the pair's undoubted talents. There's nothing particularly offensive about I Do, and it's the kind of film that you're actually quite pleased to find on in your hotel room when badly dubbed episodes of Friends get too much. Lovers of more intellectual French cinema will obviously avoid with a rather long barge pole, though. But really, at only 90 minutes, what harm can it do?