The Valet
| Year: | 2006 |
| Production Co: | Gaumont |
| Director: | Francis Veber |
| Writer: | Francis Veber |
| Cast: | Daniel Auteuil, Alice Taglioni, Kristin Scott Thomas, Virginie Leyoden |
A French movie made very much with American style, sentiment and execution, hence the hit it was in the West among people who like to think of themselves as cultured fans of foreign cinema but get Transformers at the video store when nobody's looking.
A lovable dolt is a valet at an exclusive club in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. A rich industrialist (Auteuil) is having an affair with a hot supermodel (Taglioni) but if his icy cold wife (Thomas) finds out, she'll pull her interests out of the business empire and he'll be ruined.
When his wife sees a photo of them both in the street after the model's demanded a commitment or nothing in a gossip rag, he desperately tells her she's not with him, she's with the other man in the photo. The other man is the valet, who just happened to be walking past.
The race is on to find the poor sap and bribe them both exorbitant amounts of money for him pose as the supermodel's boyfriend and them both to live together for the paparazzi until things blow over with his increasingly suspicious wife.
The usual loose ends are tied up, including the girl the valet really wants (Ledoyen), the villain getting his comeuppance and the various kooky subplots hangers-on, and it's all very nice and sweet.
And in a The Vanishing -like twist (and if you needed any more proof of the film's romantic comedy appeal), the writer/director is whoring himself as I speak to remake his own movie for the American market.
I predict a dorked-up Jessica Alba in a vastly expanded version of Ledoyen's role, Malin (The Heartbreak Kid, 27 Dresses) Ackerman as the hottie and either Ben Stiller or a scruffy Vince Vaughan (like he was in Dodgeball) as the valet.
A lovable dolt is a valet at an exclusive club in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. A rich industrialist (Auteuil) is having an affair with a hot supermodel (Taglioni) but if his icy cold wife (Thomas) finds out, she'll pull her interests out of the business empire and he'll be ruined.
When his wife sees a photo of them both in the street after the model's demanded a commitment or nothing in a gossip rag, he desperately tells her she's not with him, she's with the other man in the photo. The other man is the valet, who just happened to be walking past.
The race is on to find the poor sap and bribe them both exorbitant amounts of money for him pose as the supermodel's boyfriend and them both to live together for the paparazzi until things blow over with his increasingly suspicious wife.
The usual loose ends are tied up, including the girl the valet really wants (Ledoyen), the villain getting his comeuppance and the various kooky subplots hangers-on, and it's all very nice and sweet.
And in a The Vanishing -like twist (and if you needed any more proof of the film's romantic comedy appeal), the writer/director is whoring himself as I speak to remake his own movie for the American market.
I predict a dorked-up Jessica Alba in a vastly expanded version of Ledoyen's role, Malin (The Heartbreak Kid, 27 Dresses) Ackerman as the hottie and either Ben Stiller or a scruffy Vince Vaughan (like he was in Dodgeball) as the valet.