As Good As It Gets

Yo, there's no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + "ass" here* to see this film,like now. You have to see it in order to know what you're really messing with.

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

Blistering performances.

Though she has some seventeen films under her directorial belt Catherine Corsini lacked - until she made 'Leaving' - the cachet of other French female directors with far less movies to their credit, people like Toni Marchall, Ann Fontaine, Danielle Thompson, Nicole Garcia, Agnes Jaoui, etc. Nevertheless she has a sure touch both as scriptwriter and director and La Nouvelle Eve is a fine example of her style. She has, of course, in Karin Viard, a wonderful actress and if that weren't enough there is if anything a slightly finer actress, Catherine Frot, wasted in a supporting role. Sergio Lopez, whose truck driver character is briefly married to Eve before beating her up, was in the early stages of his career and though everyone is in good form it is Viard's movie and she makes the most of it.

Pathetic and annoying fantasy that is supposed to charm you with it's tale of a whimsical, carefree heroine looking for love. Unfortunately for the film, Eve varies from obnoxious to despicable -- she's vain, arrogant, self-absorbed and nowhere near as attractive or interesting as the movie seems to think she is. Even worse, the movie has no idea who she is or what to do with her. The character and her motivations change from scene to scene and even from shot to shot, purely to meet the half-baked demands of the screenplay. The film even manages to make the endless scenes of glamorous Parisian bohemianism tedious and pedestrian -- kind of a middle-school fantasy of what it would be like to be living that life.

Camille's story could be every woman's story and actually the main parts are played by women.Men are desired, missed, run after, dropped but it's the women who call the tune. If men seem useless it's only because Camille has to remain alone to acknowledge she needs someone to reach the happiness she's longing for. She needs to touch Eden and to lose it to keep it when met again. Before she succeeds her demands are strong even if not clearly defined but what is difficult to handle is the way society functions nowadays. Rules don't exist anymore and she has to make sense with a deconstructed and puzzling world : family doesn't exist anymore and in order to find a sort of equilibrium people get married, have children, are in politics, cling to real or occasional friends, use drug or forget themselves in a sexuality deprived of taboo. Indeed as they fail to be taboo sexual relationships become less attractive, deprived of desire . Camille is completely lost in this world she doesn't understand. The director succeeds in showing the life of this `new Eve' without making concessions but without judging her. Even when we could or do blame her for what she does, he manages to let her pain show in a very touching way. Moreover the way she throws herself into the fight makes her very likeable. Actually if the film was a success I think it's because she's a sort of French Bridget Jones and a lot of women can identify with her. Karine Viard is really wonderful in that role and makes of Camille a very endearing character. You really have to see that film.

Sometimes charming, sometimes annoying, Camille is a carefree "modern girl" who seem to have a tendency to bump into people and objects. So she lives alone, and spends her time with a bunch of friends or lovers of mixed sexual inclinations, until she bumps (physically) into the man of her life, who really has nothing to do with her. "La Nouvelle Eve" is a more humorous than usual comedy in that oh so French tradition of "who do I really love" movies. The setting is very classical (Parisian thirtysomething artists who have nothing else in their minds than sex and its related complications) and follows the pattern of most comedies of this kind. However, the movie is fun, fast, and is propelled by the energetic Karin Viard, one of the best French actresses of the new generation.