Romantics Anonymous (2010)

hyped garbage

Excellent, smart action film.

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

A bit of independent romantic bizarre mixture to create a suitable environment to enjoy the movie.Indeed, from the start to the odd end, the movie presents a fresh idea if you are tired of the typical American romantic comedy but you love the concept of two strangers falling in love; the movie is enthralling and fresh that even the predictable happy ending has a innovating details to left the viewer with a smile.Besides the situations you have the awkwardness of the characters allowing you to have a wonderful time laughing with/at them.Recommended as well as the soundtrack.

ROMANTICs ANONYMOUS puts the comedy back into the so-called rom-com genre. Relying at least 50% on physical comedy, theaters should post "Warning: Raucous Laughter Zone" notifications when exhibiting this film, if my audience at the CMU film festival was representative. Despite the primitive conditions outlined in my review of PURPLE: ORGANIZED CRIME IN A SMALL TOWN, this show was thoroughly enjoyable (mostly because A)it was 100 times more professionally produced, and B)the CMU French club hosted it, instead of the ripped-off students in the so-called Chippewa film department). Title characters played by Benoit Poelvoorde and Isabelle Carre are totally formidable here--particularly Carre, who even jumps up and clicks her heels after her first kiss in the alley outside his failing chocolate factory from Poelvoorde. If you can picture a straight Willie Wonka without Oompah Loompahs strutting around doing a seven dwarfs imitation, and then throw in the spirit of all those madcap battle of the sexes comedies Hollywood churned out in the 1930s, you will begin to have a sense of what a true gem the subtitled ROMANTICS ANONYMOUS actually is. (My summary is the funniest line in the movie, by the way, as you'll see if you watch it.)

My wife and I, after watching a surfeit of Christmas movies this year, opted for something a bit different instead and happened upon this charming, if slight, very French comedy-drama, although with its chocolaty background, perhaps we didn't get so very far away from Christmas, after all. The central idea, of a "Romantics Anonymous" for various lonely-hearts to meet and discuss their shyness and awkwardness around the opposite sex is a nice one and it's unsurprising that the story's turning-point for the reluctant lovers takes place at one of their regular meetings. However, the idea of the extremely shy woman being a secret master-chocolatier coming to the rescue of a similarly affllicted man who just happens to owns a loss-making chocolate-producing business, throws in about two coincidences too many for my sensibilities.There are some nicely played scenes where they both demonstrate their respective gaucheness, his a predilection for needing a new shirt every five minutes, hers for passing out completely, but the farce is a little too far-fetched at times. That said, the movie is directed with a light touch, is nicely played by all, besides the engaging leads, I liked the turn produced by the sympathetic seen-it-before hotel concierge. Things turn out happily, as you'd expect and even if the chocolate-making premise disappears before the end, this is still an undemanding and entertaining film which doesn't overstay its welcome, but might still leave you a little peckish afterwards.

Romantics Anonymous (2010)Sometimes a feelgood movie is so obvious you know at the start how it's going to end. But it feels so good it doesn't matter, and that's the way "Romantics Anonymous" works. The leading woman Isabelle Carre ("He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not") is a sweet, cute, lovable introvert, and I suppose any movie with her in it acting vulnerable and awkward would be a winner. Next to her is a very geeky kind of leading French actor, Benoit Pelvoorde, who is utterly brilliant even if he won't quite steal your heart. Or maybe he will. Part of the movie's aim is to take two mild misfits who are lonely and yet rather wonderful inside and get the audience to identify with them.Another major character is the little chocolate factory where they meet. Seeing the chocolates being made, and tasted, is part of the fun of the movie. Even if you don't like chocolate you'll see the pleasure of a superb high-end chocolate being developed as you watch. There are then two groups of sidekicks, one for each character. The woman goes to group therapy for her emotional issues (hence the name of the movie) and the man has his staff at the factory. All of them are, en masse, supportive and sweet.In fact, with all this sweetness going on you might wonder how you can stand it. And I suppose that's where you appreciate that it's just an hour and a quarter. Plenty. Even at this length you yearn for some complication, or some depth. Our two lovebirds are great but they remain oddly cardboard thin, too. It's a bit ogre-ish to complain about such a well-meaning and well-made movie. It's edited with breakneck speed, shot well, acted well, and rises up the television sit-com genre it may somehow owe something to. Give it a look. Totally fun.