My Best Friend [DVD]

 

 

Create your own review

This is a very pleasant film, though no masterpiece. Daniel Auteuil's successful antiques dealer, obsessed with things, not people and oblivious to the lives, interests and needs of all around him, including his daughter, is challenged by his business partner to produce his best friend. The stakes are high - a 5th.-century B.C. Greek vase that he has bought for 200,000 Euros - and he has no friends, so this is a problem. His search is entertaining and sometimes very funny. He is aided by a likeable trivial-knowledge anorak very engagingly played by Danny Boon. The film never reaches the heights, though there is one really unexpected coup de theatre involving the vase and a pleasantly lyrical close with Boon and Auteuil at dawn on a bridge, but it is well made, very enjoyable and certainly worth seeing.

How can you go wrong with Daniel Auteuil - he is just beautifully reserved in this cheeky but lovable french movie about life and love - do you have friends? You'll be answering this question from the funeral scene at the start right until the end. Directed wonderfully by Patric Leconte...enjoy the beautiful off beat sights of Paris! The orginal fim score/music is by Xavier Demerliac and it's very catchy and original...you may want to try and get this as a CD at some stage! Look out for Danny Boon a little known but wonderful french artor!

You will on the edge of your seat with the main question of the film - will he find his best friend? Watch out for the nail biting and terribly touching 'quiz' scene. Its every man and every woman's film!!

Oh no, not another winsome human comedy about life-lessons and friendship. Buy a movie ticket or the DVD anyway. In the hands of director Patrice Leconte and actors Daniel Auteuil and Dany Boon, My Best Friend turns out to be not just a charming, sweet-natured fable, but a well-told and well-acted one. Francois Coste (Auteuil) co-owns a Paris gallery, has a great-looking apartment, seems estranged from his college-going daughter, knows many people in the business and has just impulsively bought at auction a very expensive Greek vase. One thing Coste lacks are any friends. Oh, he has plenty of business acquaintances, is reasonably cordial most of the time, but also, we notice, is somewhat distant to everyone he knows. He can talk antiques engagingly but he doesn't seem to really notice much about the people he talks to. When he gets in over his head financially with the purchase of the vase, his smart, good-looking partner is irritated. Francois has never even noticed that she likes women and has a partner of her own. She makes a bet with him. He has ten days to prove he has a best friend...or she gets the vase. Francois is smugly confident, until the people he adds to his list of friends begin telling him the truth. And then he meets a cabdriver, Bruno Bouley (Boon). Bruno likes people, listens to them, talks to them and has a great passion for odd facts. He wants to be on a television quiz program. People seem naturally to like Bruno. When Francois realizes he has no friends, real friends, the kind you can call up at 3 a.m. or who will do whatever it takes to come to your assistance if you need help, he decides to have Bruno teach him how to make friends. It doesn't work out quite the way Francois expects, or the way we expect, at least not till the very end of the movie.

Sweet-natured the movie is. Both Francois and Bruno learn some lessons that hurt, Bruno first and then Francois. That the story eventually works out for all concerned is no spoiler. We've smiled some, teared up a little, and left the movie house feeling well pleased and satisfied. We also ask ourselves, this is a Patrice Leconte film, from the man who has given us such exceptional movies as Mr. Hire (1989), Man on the Train (2002), Ridicule 1996) and The Widow of Saint-Pierre (2000)? It is, and My Best Friend is an amusing vacation from angst and irony and drama. It's a thoroughly enjoyable movie.

The two actors who make it work so well, of course, are Auteuil and Boon. They play off each other with great skill and authenticity. Auteuil is practically a French national treasure. Along with his contemporary Gerard Depardieu, the two have just about dominated French acting by male leads. Neither of them has conventional leading man looks, but both can play anything, from tragedy to comedy, from fools to heroes, and both can either dominate a movie or fade back into being one of the cast. Compare the versatility of Auteuil: Contemporary high drama in Cache (2005) and La Separation (1994), rollicking sword-play and romance in Le Bossu (1997), tragedy in The Widow of Saint Pierre (1994) and hopeless, dull-witted ineptitude in Jean de Florette and, especially, Manon of the Spring (both 1986).

Mon Meilleur Ami is an easy-going, charming movie about friendship and even love. "There is no love, just the tests for love;" no, "There are no tests for love, just love." Both make sense. That's why this movie works.

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review

› See all 16 customer reviews on Amazon.co.uk

 

3.0 out of 5 stars Auteuil of 2 buddies....
The cold, callous but charming Mr Coste finds that his cercle d'amis is in fact more like a collection of business cards when he makes an impromptu wager with his business partner... Read more

Published 9 months ago by S. Marsden

4.0 out of 5 stars Charming French Movie
The French are adept at making movies about ordinary people doing fairly unremarkable things. There is a 'joie de vivre' and 'je ne sais quoi' in the simple, stylish manner this... Read more

Published 12 months ago by Justice Peace

5.0 out of 5 stars my best friend
Wonderful film. Very entertaining and accomplished. Suits both french and non french speakers. Great value and one to keep and see over and over again.

Published 17 months ago by ReaderA

3.0 out of 5 stars Charming and Very French
Im a huge Patrice Leconte fan and enjoyed this very much but it's not nearly as good as his past films. Read more

Published on 14 Jan 2010 by Carole King

5.0 out of 5 stars A must see !
I have enjoyed Foreign Language films for years and bought this on impulse having read the synopsis. Read more

Published on 17 Sep 2009 by D FERRIS

5.0 out of 5 stars tense!
This is a well thought out film with lots of tension near the end. It is worth bearing in mind, before watching it with the whold family that the language in the subtitles can be... Read more

Published on 12 July 2009 by Cousin Hebe

3.0 out of 5 stars Very amiable
My Best Friend isn't Patrice Leconte's best and it's probably not as funny as it could be, but it's so amiable that it really doesn't matter. Read more

Published on 16 Jun 2009 by Trevor Willsmer

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful film about real friendship
This film is typically French and takes a wry look at how true friendship between two men can be formed and tested. Read more

Published on 12 April 2009 by Kenneth Roth

4.0 out of 5 stars Delightful
Nice film with lovely performances by all the main characters, especially the leads, Daniel Auteuil and Dany Boon. Read more

Published on 4 Jan 2009 by Frids

2.0 out of 5 stars Bland film
"My Best Friend" is an amiable but somewhat dull barely humourous French film starring Daniel Auteuil as an antiques dealer who is seeking a best friend after being told that he... Read more

Published on 17 May 2008 by L. Davidson

Search Customer Reviews
Only search this product's reviews

› See all 16 customer reviews on Amazon.co.uk

Search Listmania!