Who's in It: Audrey Dana, Dominique Pinon, Fanny Ardant
The Basics: A female crime novelist is researching characters for her next book. Lucky her, a serial killer just escaped from prison, and he's known for being kind of showy about it and doing magic tricks for his victims. But what's really going on here? Is she really the writer of these books? Is the killer really her ghostwriter instead, or is he just a missing husband of another character? And is the other woman he meets — one who asks him to pose as her fiancé — a hair stylist or a prostitute?
What's the Deal? This is the kind of inconsequential movie you have to allow to play with itself while you watch. You're not going to crack the characters' identities until the movie wants you to. And it's going to have a good time with you or without you while it takes its time getting to that reveal. It's up to you whether or not you want to sit back and enjoy yourself as much as it does.
Casting Is Everything: The three leads are great. Dana is unpleasant throughout, and yet you wind up on her side. Pinon from Delicatessen is a weird-looking little guy who's forceful enough to command that you keep looking. And then there's Ardant, who's so glamorous and a perfectly old-school actrice that you can't help but wish she starred in every French film made.
My Favorite New Genre: French movies that make it over to America tend to be of the art-film persuasion. But with stuff like Paris Je T'Aime, Priceless and this, I'm sort of digging this new stealth-Hollywoodish French film that doesn't care if you think it's artful enough or not. It just wants to entertain.