February
14, 2003 10:20 a.m. Mad
Love
A
dark valentine.
et
no one accuse Audrey Tautou of excessive caution in her career choices.
With last year's amazing success as the title character in the hit comedy
Amélie,
Tautou conquered U.S. audiences and stood poised to be an international
star of huge mainstream appeal: the lovable and non-threatening Frenchwoman,
a crossover France Lite who could consistently break into the multiplexes.
Tautou's new film,
He
Loves Me, He Loves Me Not..., with its cute title and Valentine's
Day release date, gives every impression of conforming to this plan: an
upscale date movie. Until, that is, about 45 minutes into the story-when
the plot does a breathtaking U-turn from soap opera into Hitchcockian
suspense. This turns out to be not an easy-on-the-eyes date movie with
subtitles, but a thrilling intellectual excursion into madness.
The first 45 minutes work well enough on their own terms. Tautou is likable,
but a little unsettling, as Angélique, a young woman in a love
affair with a married man. The man is Loïc, a handsome doctor (played
solidly by Samuel Le Bihan), who causes Angélique a great deal
of anguish by deciding he belongs with his wife after all. So far, so
good; it's the love-triangle movie we've seen any number of times, done
a little bit better than most. Until, that is . . . The plot twist is
intelligent and convincing, and a source of pure joy to the viewer; so
it shouldn't be ruined. Anyone who wants to avoid SPOILERS should skip
the next paragraph completely.
Angélique's problem, it turns out, is not that her lover has abandoned
her, but that she is completely insane, and has imagined the love affair
in its entirety. She is merely housesitting for Loïc's neighbors,
and has developed an obsession with him-an obsession that does not stop
short of violent crimes. This second half of the movie is told from Loïc's
perspective, as he grapples with the mystery of who is sending him all
these mysterious gifts and notes; his marriage itself is threatened when
all the unusual events make his wife understandably suspicious.
This is the first feature-length movie of director Laetitia Colombani,
but she manages some difficult emotional transitions with a firm hand
and a veteran's assurance. Also noteworthy is the adorable Sophie Guillemin
as Angélique's friend Héloïse; she was great in the
2000 suspense movie With
a Friend Like Harry, and deserves more substantial roles.
I am not 100 percent certain, but I thought I saw out of the corner of
my eye the nameplate "J. L. BORGES" on the door of one of Loïc's
physician colleagues. This affectionate wink at the viewer would be quite
appropriate, because the film does indeed achieve a Borgesian combination
of passionate love and intellectual labyrinth.
This is a very black comedy, with some good laughs in its dark Valentine's
Day heart.
<% dim printurl
printurl = Request.ServerVariables("URL")%>
et
no one accuse Audrey Tautou of excessive caution in her career choices.
With last year's amazing success as the title character in the hit comedy
