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Money Can’t Buy Love
By bukkhead | June 17, 2008
FILM REVIEW: ‘PRICELESS’
Written by Benoît Graffin and Pierre Salvadori
Directed by Pierre Salvadori
Rated PG-13
104 mins.
Beautiful people and wealthy people go together like a horse and carriage, and even if there is no love, marriage is the ultimate goal. But they also say amor omni vincit… can love conquer Cartier, The Monte Carlo, and caviar? Audrey Tautou, who every loved in Amélie, (and raised an eyebrow at in The Da Vinci Code), plays Irène, a gold digger with enough experience in the game to be as much fighter as ingénue. Despite having won an almost sure thing, she can’t help but look for fun on her birthday, and mistakes a simple bartender for a very wealthy hotel guest. She’s not foolish enough to abandon one rich man for another, but not so focused that she won’t allow herself an indiscretion. However, it’s not called indiscretion for nothing.
From the film The Valet, Gad Elmalah is Jean, the simple bartender, who can’t help but fall in love with Irène. When her indiscretion results in her losing her fiancée, she flees to Nice, to begin finding another carriage to ride in, and Jean follows, to apologize. That she is, for all intents and purposes, just a very high-priced prostitute doesn’t bother him in the least, and he bashfully dips into his meager life savings, just to spend a few days with her. Broke, at risk at being jailed for his debts, Jean has to become as Irène is, since, he too is beautiful, and wealthy women want companionship as well.
What follows is not such much a farce as the French Riviera version of a farce, the coquettish Tautou and sky-blue-eyed Elmalah version of a farce. Irène becomes a teacher to Jean’s status as apprentice gold-digger, though he’s only in the game so he can stay close to her. Elmalah expertly portrays a fish out of water, or a fish in new waters, struggling with his new identity, unable to relax as a man amongst servants. That Jean is still, basically, a servant, is not lost on him, and Jean never lets his role as gigolo allow him to forget why he is doing this: for love of Irene.
And while Jean’s dedication weathers him in his becoming a skilled gold digger, Irène‘s icy dedication can’t help but melt to Jean’s uncompromising adoration. Then again, this hardly bears questioning since, if rich old people would gladly spends thousands on Irene and Jean, why wouldn’t they find themselves also just as alluring? Director and co-writer Pierre Salvadoru seems to sense this, or at least recognize it, as he doesn’t linger on long drawn-out love scenes, trying to convince us that these two beautiful people like one another. He focuses most attention on the comedy.
Nevertheless, the rest is predictable, but not in the least unwatchable. Elmalah and Tautou have an excellent chemistry as a comedy team, with more than one laugh-out-loud moment. You might call them the French version of Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan; time will tell if they find an opportunity to do more films together.
(This review was printed in the Newport Mercury.)
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