Camden Movie Review | Priceless | Pierre Salvadori | Gad Elmaleh

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The Review - AT THE MOVIES with DAN CARRIER
Published: 12 June 2008

Gad Elmaleh and the recently charmless Audrey Tatou

Camden Movie Review | Priceless | Pierre Salvadori | Gad Elmaleh | Audrey Tatou

PRICELESS
Directed by Pierre Salvadori
Certificate 12

THE Côte D’Azur was once a by-word for French swankiness, the place where the most beautiful members of the most beautiful nation congregated to sup kooky cocktails and flash flesh.
But as this slack-witted comedy shows, one thing – namely the glamour of the French Riviera – has clearly declined since the days of Cary Grant, Grace Kelly and To Catch A Thief.
Instead, it stinks of tack, full of lonely sun-wrinklies whose main aim in life is to spend their unearned wealth on disgusting jewellery.
For starters, this film has a ridiculous premise: Audrey Tatou is Irene, the cash-loving trophy girlfriend who gets her claws into any one with a bottle of Tattinger to hand, but needs to learn there is more to life than super shoes.
Enter Jean (Gad Elmaleh), the bumbling waiter who finds himself mistaken for a rich and sophisticated millionaire by the gold digging minx.
It says much about the stupidity of Tatou’s character that she could make such a mistake, and much for the shallowness of Jean that he does not put her straight immediately.
He does mankind a great disservice by suggesting that he’d fall for someone on the strength of her unquestionably lovely looks while her behaviour is so vile.
Sadly, Tatou as an actress has lost her charm.
Her defining characteristic are some lithe, bronzed limbs. It’s a great shame: her previous form is impressive. A Very Long Engagement still stands as one of my favourite films, and her character as a polio-stricken woman searching for the truth about her fiances fate in the trenches is a truly romantic comedy.
This film just appears as a tacky take off of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.

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