My Best Friend (2006)

Pretty Good

I was totally surprised at how great this film.You could feel your paranoia rise as the film went on and as you gradually learned the details of the real situation.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

The movie is made so realistic it has a lot of that WoW feeling at the right moments and never tooo over the top. the suspense is done so well and the emotion is felt. Very well put together with the music and all.

I watched this movie at a little cultural exposition and festival with my French class and expected the usual French sentimental comedy-drama kitsch, but I got positively surprised by the movie.It is indeed a comedy-drama with a very social-critic and philosophic touch, but the actors all do a very good job here and this is what rates this movie up. Especially Dany Boon shows his entire talent in this movie. You really begin to care about the profound and tragical characters in their search for friendship, respect and integration. It's true that the twists and the ending are quite predictable, that there are many clichés shown in the movie and that the movie shows nothing new or innovating but I like the straight honesty of the film. It is taken out of the real life and that's why everybody is somehow slightly touched by this movie. It is surely not a very intense movie that really makes you think and analyze your own life, but it is a very entertaining and sympathetic movie and easy to watch.I would recommend this movie to everyone who likes the French cinema, who likes realistic movies taken out of the real everyday life and who is looking for some sentimental entertainment. Those who expect an innovative movie, a masterpiece or who are not interested while reading the movie's resume shouldn't watch this.

"Mon Meilleur Ami" combines the exploration of innocence and gregariousness of "Amelie" with the depiction of obsessive/compulsive behaviour as exhibited in "Rain Man" and tries to present the result as a light Gallic comedy,but,unfortunately,it doesn't quite bring it off. Taxi driver Bouley and antiques dealer Lacoste are at opposite ends of the spectrum,one cynical,misanthropic,money-oriented,the other naive, a free spirit who lives across the road from his parents - maybe a contradiction but not an impossibility - and obsessed with "facts" to the extent that he is apt to turn every conversation into a one man seminar.The plot device that brings these men together comprises of telling the audience directly that Lacoste has no friends and allowing the audience to realise that for all his affability and apparent outgoing personality,Bouley has no friends either. The movie concerns itself with charting their relationship in a "Boy meets boy,boy loses boy,boy gets back with boy" sort of way. Unfortunately,for a film that clearly wants to appear sophisticated it is rather too transparent and the last 20 minutes or so drag it down to TV soap level,negating the good work done by messrs Auteil and Boon. Because of the charm of the principals I wanted to like "Mon Meilleur Ami",from the start but I'm afraid it failed to live up to its credentials.

There is no wonder that François (Daniel Auteuil) doesn't have any friends. He arranges to see an antique with the widow at a man's funeral. He can't even wait a respectable time. He only thinks of himself when he overbids on a Greek vase with the gallery's money.His partner Catherine (Julie Gayet), who he didn't even know was a lesbian, bets he has no friends. She bets the vase and gives him 10 days to produce a friend.He quickly finds out that no one likes him.Auteuil was fantastic in last night's The Closet, and he has the same hound dog expression in this film. He was boring in that film; here he is just self centered. He even resorts to Dial-a-Friend.He resorts to getting lessons from a cabbie, Bruno Bouley (Dany Boon), who makes friends easily, but he even blows that, his one chance at friendship.He makes up for it secretly, and the two end up as friends.Writer/director Patrice Leconte had a great film, and I certainly want to see more of his work.

Even though some fellow reviewers have referred as the main theme of this movie the bet made between Francois and Catherine, his business partner of showing her his best friend in 10 days, I think it's quite more profound than that.It's a story that shows a journey of 2 men in the process of finding true friend ship. It also shows that anybody can have friends, that we all have that person or persons in the world that understand us. Francois was friendless and we can relate to that because the guy was quite unlikeable but even Bruno, in spite of being friendly and kind, was also without friends because he had been betrayed by his best friend and his wife. So these 2 human beings meet in a moment when they are both vulnerable and with a big need to be loved. Love is usually related to your partner, kids, family. But this movie shows how important friendship's love is. Nobody can live without friends, no matter how successful you are, nothing can substitute the feeling of having somebody to call at 3 am. And finally, it shows that friendship is spontaneous, it can't be bought or planned, it just happens. And that's how Bruno and Francois became friends, real friends.Thank you Patrice Leconte for having portrayed in this movie such a journey that remind us so much of our own journeys in finding friendship.