Here's a premise that's surely en route to a Hollywood remake: a lothario and his crew break up inappropriate or inconvenient relationships for hire — until, inevitably, the guy falls for one of his targets. Romain Duris, slumming after such rigorous efforts as The Beat My Heart Skipped, plays goofy, cynical heartthrob Alex, whom we first see seducing a besotted woman away from a fortune hunter through a combination of Mission Impossible–like dirty tricks and phony tears.
Trouble is, the crew's set-ups are as elaborate and costly as a movie production, and Alex's scruples about not breaking up happy relationships has limited their market. So he gives in and accepts a gig to separate Juliette (Vanessa Paradis) from her Mr. Perfect fiancé, with humiliating and poetically just results.
In his first feature, TV veteran Pascal Chaumeil demonstrates a flair for schmaltz and pratfalls, evoking nostalgia for a time when French cinema wasn't a farm league for American studios.
