Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

ThedevilChoose When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

ActuallyGlimmer The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

robert-temple-1 This is an excellent but relatively little-known film scripted and directed by Claude Berri. The original French title of the film is ENSEMBLE, C'EST TOUT. It is based on a novel by Anna Gavalda. It offers yet another opportunity for the Elf (Audrey Tautou) to shine, which is always welcome to tautouologists. Her eyes are just as big as usual. Indeed, the behaviour of this rare mammal never disappoints and is as interesting as the meerkats, especially with her great big eyes. Elves also have the advantage of being related to humans, so that they are even more endearing. Here the Elf pretends to be difficult and disturbed, which we tautouologists know is only acting. Equally difficult and disturbed is Guillaume Canet, who for a long time does not fully appreciate the Elf, and is apparently blind to her merits. Indeed, there is even initial hostility between them. But then something called Love enters the story, and the two creatures discover the joys of cuddling and other such intimacies which mammals enjoy. Dancing round these two creatures is a splendid one called Laurent Stocker, who plays the character called Philibert, an aristocrat with many more grand names after that, including also the necessary 'de', without which no French aristocrat is complete. He is what is known as 'effete', but in the most charming and delightful and scatty way. They all end up living together in a gigantic flat in Paris which is full of antiques and family portraits of the 'de' family. As for the Elf and the Canet, they are not aristocrats, and the Canet has boorish habits such as living in an untidy nest with things all over the floor. This is a very charming romantic comedy, directed with the flair which we normally associate with the Berri, and which suits all films starring the irresistible Elf. All animal lovers and Francophiles will love this film. And even the French, who are so hard to please, must enthusiastically enjoy such an ensemble, and believe that c'est tout. Of course, this all happened a very long time ago, in 2007. But its warm glow persists in the sky of celluloid heaven.

realyogsototh The good:Excellent actor performance concerning 3 of the 4 main actors. Aurelie Tautou was just good but not excellent. - The people in the story are kind of sympathetic.The bad:Everything else. First, when I watch a movie, I don't want to think about how the movie is done. About, is the acting is good. I just want to enter into the movie. Live the experience with the people I see. Or if you want to make a movie in order to think to something, just do a dreaming-like movie à la David Lynch.The realization of this movie is simply horrible. When you watch this movie, you think about the camera movement. Terrible as in bad TV french series with small budget. Actors: Main actor are very good. But for almost each second role, the acting is just plain bad. In the first 10 minutes of the movies, I noticed at least two actors (second role) that were very _bad_. I believe I am a very nice public. Even mid-good actor can make the trick with me. But, this time it was like: we play like if we were in a theater not in real life nor movie. May be this impression is only in VO (French).Concerning the story: I don't dislike slow movies in general. I love Japanese very long movies where nothing occurs for 1 minutes on the screen. But when this kind of thing occurs in slow movies, in general this is for a good reason. There is a "hidden" message or at least a stunning view. In this movie, there is nothing like that. The number of scene that could be trashed is simply enormous.But this one was just completely boring. There is no plot. This is not a joke. There really is no surprise in the entire movie. No "action", no changing "event". The most vivid moment of the entire movie is when Camille (Aurelie Tautou) drop a radio by a window because she is angry. The rest of the story, is something you can see every day.The message: "Socialize and you will live better". OK, I get it. I didn't need a complete movie with this only one message.In conclusion:If I was alone, I wouldn't have watched this movie until the end. Even if the character are attaching and the actors are excellent, this is just not enough to save this movie. There are so many realization errors that I was "pop out" of this movie too much.

Harry T. Yung The movie starts (almost) with a scene of an old woman collapsing at home from a stroke and her neighbour calling her grandson Franck, a cook whose job dictates that he lives a life of constantly trying to catch up on his sleep after long working hours. Before that, we see Camille, a woman with artistic talents getting a job at the lowest of the social rung, a cleaning lady for offices. Through a chance encounter with Camille we meet Philibert, a poor aristocrat aspiring to be a professional actor. The three of them live in the same house, the men roommates and the women in an attic-like room that cannot even accommodate a table. The movie shows how these three strangers (while the men are roommates, it doesn't look as if they are life-long buddies) get to know, appreciate, care for and help each other.While we see character development for all the three characters, we are not given complete backgrounds. This is the way it should be, for this movie, which is a cross-sectional slice of a certain point in their lives.Through a brief scene lunching with her mother, we understand that Camille is raised in a single parent family (father deserting them) and the relationship between mother and daughter has never been good. It is never explained why a girl with considerable talent, good practical sense, a warm heart and a healthy sense of humour should settle for a menial job. Is that deliberately to spite the mother? We can only guess.Franck seems not unhappy working as a cook where he seems to be on good terms with his boss and co-workers. His predicament is long hours and the need to take care of his ailing grandmother. After her stroke, his only day off each week is written off as the nursing home he can afford to put her in is a long ride away. While we are touched by Franck's kindness to his grandmother, we tend to frown upon his customary gruff temper, particularly towards Camille. But his hidden tenderness and sense of humor gradually surface.Stuttering Philibert, on the other hand, is likable from beginning to end, kind, caring, mild and gentle. Again not much is given by way of his background although we see that he does have a family which he visits occasionally. With Philibert, the focus is on his dream of becoming a stage performer, which he eventually achieves through training from a good teacher introduced by his girlfriend.The movie revolves around these three people. The main event, if there's one, is when Camille, at her own initiative, takes up the job of nursing Franck's grandma by having her moved to live with them. This is the happiest time of the old woman's life. During a brief visit back in her own home, she dies peacefully sitting on her own rocking chair. Her creamed ashes are scattered in her own garden.One would almost wish that there is no romance, to make this "Paris movie" really unique. But that will be too much of a disappointment for most audience to contemplate. The romance is fine though - light, unsentimental and consistent with the characters of Camille and Franck. And there is something unique about the Paris shown in this movie – neighborhood, unassuming scenes that do not have "tourist attraction" written all over the frame.

blugrin87 Vaguely interesting movie about life, but I felt it was made fascinating only due to the charisma of its two leads, the wonderful Guillaume Canet and the irrepressible Audrey Tautou. Had the leads been given to any other actor with considerable less charm, the movie would have sank. The character's central conflict is not firmly established, and watching the plot develop was equivalent to swimming in an open sea: direction-less. The happy ending was completely expected but heartwarming all the same; I just wished they had brought out the narrative motive more convincingly for me to feel like there was a point to this whole movie. The pacing was also a little too slow, and the nondescript dialog emphasized the lengthy duration of the movie.On a whole, I felt the director could have done a lot better with the movie by giving it greater focus, faster pacing, wittier dialog- there were quite a few moments in the film between Tautou and Canet's characters that could have done better with wittier dialog.A must-watch only for the actors' fans.