Mon meilleur ami (My Best Friend)

I decided to change up how I do these movie reviews. The part that I'm the worst at (and like the least) is trying to sum up the plot in a nice little package. I feel like I ramble a bit and leave out important items. So instead I'm just going to borrow a plot synopsis from imdb.com and then get on to the fun stuff: what I think about the film. So here is the IMDB synopsis about My Best Friend:

François is a middle-aged antique dealer. He has a stylish apartment and a fabulous life, but at a dinner with a group he considers his dearest acquaintances, he is blindsided by the revelation that none of them actually likes him. He's arrogant, self-centered and harsh, and they don't believe he knows the meaning of friendship. His business partner Catherine makes him a bet: if he can produce his best friend, she will let him keep the massive Greek vase he acquired that afternoon on the company tab. If not, it's hers. Having accepted the wager, François naively tears through his address book, trying to shoehorn an increasingly unlikely series of contacts into the all-important role. Moving through Paris, he keeps encountering a trivia-spouting, big-hearted cabbie named Bruno. Bruno's chatty, lowbrow ways grate against François's designer temperament, but he covets the other man's easy way with people. He convinces Bruno to teach him how to make friends and sets about learning the "three S's" - being sociable, smiling and sincere - though they don't come easy. Ultimately, François victory will depend on Bruno's naiveté in playing along, but what's the cost of cheating at friendship?

OK, now that's out of the way.

This film was recommended to us by Anthony, my brother-in-law, a little bit surprisingly because he doesn't watch a ton of foreign films. I think the fact that it was foreign was a big reason he loaned it to us.

Personally, I was able to sympathize with the main character Francois' dilemma. I also find it difficult to make friends at times, to "socialize." But Francois has a much more semi-tragic, semi-comic arc than what I've experienced. This stems mainly from what he thinks are the best ways to procure quality friends. His whole notion on this matter is symbolized in the Greek vase mentioned in the synopsis above. The Greek vase, as described at the auction, was created in tribute to a dead friend, and the creator then filled it with his tears. This is the devotion that Francois desires. But instead of simply keeping the idea of the vase in his mind, he gets in to a bidding war for it, spending 200,000 Euros of company money. The film constantly demonstrates how Francois attempts to buy friends. He goes up to strangers in a cafe and attempts to pay their checks, offers to buy the next round, he even spends 10, 000 Euros on a worthless table in an attempt to make Bruno's parents like him. It becomes pretty pathetic.

Francois doesn't improve much when Bruno, the chatty cab driver, becomes his friend out of pity. It reaches a culmination when Francois tricks Bruno into committing insurance fraud for him. When the trick is revealed, Bruno smashes the symbolic vase. It is only at this point that Francois sees clearly. This vase, which he valued as the utmost symbol of friendship, was only brittle terra cotta that was easily shattered, and by someone he considered a friend. It didn't have the tenacity that real friendship does. It's place on the Pedestal of Ultimate Devotion was too much to live up to; it was holding Francois back. Only after he thinks the vase is gone does he act as a true friend towards Bruno.

The movie makes a big deal out of Francois' "friends" stating that the hate him. They say he's self-centered, arrogant, obsessed with money. And although that is true in a way, I don't think Daniel Auteiul's (also in Cache) portrayal totally brings that home. But I think that's a good thing. It would have been bad for the film if it portrayed Francois as some Ebenezer Scrooge-like curmudgeon, not too mention a French one. Who's going to feel for that guy? Kudos to Auteiul for keeping the Francois character somewhat likable.

Overall, a funny, enjoyable to watch French film.

Wade: 3.5/5 stars Kinsey: 4/5 stars