It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

How far does one go to succeed? This is the question the movie 'Un homme idéal' deals with. In it, Pierre Niney plays the unsuccessful author Mathieu, to whom chance gives the diary of a dead man, which he unceremoniously transforms into his own novel and thus has the much-awaited mega-success. A small step with a big impact. Because at some point the world of literature expects a follow-up work and even worse, someone contacts Mathieu who has known the real author. Finally Mathieu is involved in a spiral of violence and lies, which gets its own momentum and can no longer be stopped ... Director Yann Gozlan presents a story in a stringent rhythm that Alfred Hitchcock probably would have loved. Like the master of suspense, Gozlan tumbles down the save world of his protagonist within a short moment and let him fight to survive. And just like Hitchcock, Gozlan manages that we feel sympathy for Mathieu, no matter how drastic the actions are he takes to uphold the dizziness. And with that, the director avoids giving a moral judgment on Mathieu, he leaves that to the viewer. 'Un homme idéal' is brilliantly staged with the camera, fluidly narrated, without fast cuts, logically constructed, in beautiful colors and in the present time a recovery for the eye. The story is without any length and gives a constant tension. After 104 minutes you wonder how fast the time has passed. The film is focused on its leading actor, this leaves the supporting players a little pale in their character, but that is criticism at the highest level. And that in the end one or two little things of the logic ago might be reconsidered, finally doesn't matter at all. The moral of the movie, without giving away too much, is the fact, that whoever climbs high can still fall a lot deeper. The end of the movie is suprising, harrowing and deeply touching. The film has consistently excellent actors, most notably the new French superstar Pierre Niney, here in Germany best known from Francois Ozon's 'Frantz' (in the UK probably with 'Yves Saint Laurent'). Pierre Niney comes from the theater (La Comédie Francaise) and can rightly be described as the greatest talent since Patrick Dewaere. So far, he has delivered outstanding performance in all of his films. At the moment he has huge success in France with a biopic about the french writer Romain Gary. Unfortunately, this film (La promesse de l 'aube) as well as 'Un homme idéal' has not yet found a German distributer and one wonders how it can be that every stupid crap is thrown on the market and successful films like 'Un homme idéal' (about 700.000 admissions in France) and 'La promesse de l'aube' (after 3 weeks already 750.000 admissions) can not find a german distributor !!! Who would not like to relinquish instead one of these unbearable real-life comic book films from the States ????

This film is an inventive and exciting thriller, which is solid and well made. The plot is about how wrong things can go when lies and ambitions coincide, and the price one must pay is very high. Here are no big effects, but rather a well-constructed story, which both frightens and fascinates. It is credible and the protagonist is both nasty and a person we get sympathy for. The film manages to show us booth sides of the main characters struggles to be somebody important. It also has several surprising elements, and a rich cast of characters. The lead role is a person we may also know a bit about. We want success, but not at any price. Where do we draw the line? Our man is willing to go very far, at horrible consequences. I will not reveal any of the content here, but would like to get that film has a surprise ending. A final I think works very well, and that also makes this film stand out from many others in its genre. There is some Hitchcock throughout the film, and it is of course intended as a compliment. It will certainly be an American version .... but this is good enough anyway.

The French are the masters of the sophisticated, character-driven psychological thriller, and "Un Homme Idéal" is further proof. The writing-directing team of Yann Gozlan and Guillaume Lemans (I will be looking for more films from these two) make every situation build inescapably from the previous one (everything that can go wrong, does go wrong), use the beautiful Cote D'Azur locations organically, and handle the suspense well, in the Hitchcockian manner. Although the film is set in a slightly "heightened" reality, which is one of the pleasures of the genre after all, it rarely hits a false note. An exemplary thriller. *** out of 4.

A true terrific surprise, this homage to Alfred Hitchcock and Patricia Highsmith. All long this movie, I thought of Mr Riplet - PLEIN SOLEIL. The cruel destiny of a petty uninspired novelist, who suddenly discover an old forgotten manuscript written by a dead man and decides to appropriate it to himself. We watch here the rise to fame and celebrity for the forgerer, and that's when it becomes very taut, thrilling, with terrific performances from the outstanding characters. Our lead will have to desperately fight against all odds to make it. Pierre Niney is a promising actor. I am sure he'll have a great career, that's the worst I wish him. Watch out for Marc Barbé's performance, as the stinking blackmailer; a character that suits him like a glove.