Ma voisine du dessous

I wanted to watch this mainly because of Michele Laroque, whom I have fixed as Daniel Auteuil's partner alias Pignon from the successful comedy The Closet, and I consider her a quality actress with typical French charm and great comedic talent. Unfortunately, I didn't notice that it wasn't a French film, but an American production, so in this variation on a romantic comedy about the emotional closeness of two seemingly incompatible opponents that has been done a thousand times, I noticeably missed the charm of French conversational comedies and relationship films. If something really drags down this film, it's the screenplay, which is neutered and mainstream cowardly, and simply mediocre. If I were to compare it to Green Card, which I recently reviewed, then I would say that Matthew Modine doesn't have even half of Gerard Depardieu's charisma, and although Michele Laroque easily surpasses Andie MacDowell as a character actress, here she doesn't have much to do and the script's qualities are really a lot worse in this film. So, if I gave Green Card 3 stars, here I necessarily have to give less. Moreover, I cannot forgive the fact that Michele Laroque was 47 at the time of filming and, in all honesty, she doesn't look like a woman who is about to enter marriage for the first time and considering whether to have two or three children. After all, in a drama ten years older called My Life in Pink, she played the mother of a boy on the verge of puberty... Overall impression: 40%. (21/03/2010)