A Perfect Plan ** (2012, Diane Kruger, Dany Boon) – Movie Review

Director Pascal Chaumeil’s broad but pleasant French romcom can at least boast a fresh and interesting premise. An entire family is apparently cursed for ever that all its members find their first marriages end in divorce. Diane Kruger plays Isabelle, who has a handsome older boyfriend she adores – Pierre (Robert Plagnol). She has loved him for the past ten years and now would like to have kids with him but he says his family would insist they marry first. She can’t marry him because of her family curse. Her younger sister comes up with a plan – a day trip to Denmark to marry and divorce a man she’s arranged for the purpose on line.

Great plan. Isabelle jumps on the plane but finds she has an obnoxious, chatty neighbour, Jean-Yves (Dany Boon), who works for the Rough Guides. He’s flying to Africa via Copenhagen to save 400 euros. Isabelle and Jean-Yves get off to a terrible start. They part for ever at the airport. Then Isabelle gets stood up by her prospective husband and phones for help to the sister, who tells her to propose to the nearest random man. It’s Jean-Yves of course, and that means Isabelle has to get on the plane and follow him when he travels to Kenya, where hopefully they can marry and divorce. Well , that’s the plan. Somehow, after this, they end up in a chilly Moscow.

A Perfect Plan (Un plan parfait) is dizzy and wacky, and motors along amiably if without much logic or sense of purpose, but there plenty of bright comic moments and funny set pieces in its 104 minutes. Kruger’s no comedienne, but she’s a good enough actor to act funny, giving a brisk and capable performance. Boon knows how to raise easy laughs in the popular French style.

With everything carefully signposted beforehand, it’s not subtle, and of course it is all very predictable, but then that’s the whole point. Fans of romcoms and popular French comedies shouldn’t feel short-changed.

Written by Laurent Zeitoun and Yoann Gromb, and based on a story by Philippe Mechelen, it was filmed on location in Moscow and Antwerp. Chaumeil is best known for his 2010 romantic comedy Heartbreaker starring Romain Duris and Vanessa Paradis.

(C) Derek Winnert 2014 Movie Review

Link to Derek Winnert’s home page for more film reviews: http://derekwinnert.com/