Beautiful Lies

If you’re after a romantic comedy with a twist, you could be in luck. Audrey Tatou stars in Beautiful Lies, a tale of deceit and persuasion which does what it says on the tin but gives a few more laughs than love…

Pierre Salvadori (Priceless) returns with French actress Audrey Tatou in this tale about a woman, Emilie (Tatou), who forwards on a beautifully written anonymous love letter she receives to cheer up her depressed mother. Completely unaware of and unconcerned about who the letter has come from, Emilie hatches a plan to save her mother from slipping deeper and deeper into despair after her husband leaves her. And guess what – it works.

But what starts as a few white lies with good intentions soon turns into a debacle of deception, in which Emilie, her mother Maddy (Natalie Baye) and Jean (Sami Bouajila), a shy man who works for Emilie, get entangled. Desperate to find someone willing to play the author, Emilie calls on Jean and goes to all lengths to persuade him to help her continue her mother’s fantasy. But she is too self-absorbed to realise that he is the person behind the letter who is hopelessly in love with her. Emilie loses sight of exactly what she is trying to achieve, isolating herself from those around her, leading to her own heartache.

But, aside from all the deceit, this is a story of acceptance between mother and daughter – and, not forgetting, love.

Despite a somewhat farfetched and often frustrating storyline, the characters are very believable. Tatou creates some simple yet laugh-out-loud moments, which certainly don’t get lost in translation.

But the real star is Baye whose portrayal of the flame-haired, and slightly mad, Maddy brings a comical yet touching side to the film, in a role that Salvadori’s admits was written for her. One of the film’s funniest moments comes when Maddy follows Jean into Emilie’s hairdressing salon, consumed by Emilie’s lies that he is her admirer. Jean’s bewilderment, in particular, had the whole cinema in fits of giggles.

“Only she could follow Sami Bouajila like that in the street, in full daylight, in that astonishing outfit,” Salvadori says.

Perhaps the only criticism is the somewhat disjointed love story between Emilie and Jean, which doesn’t seem to work as well as the rest of the story. The two do, however, create some impressive comic moments.

Beautiful Lies is a clever, refreshing and quirky take on the rom-com, which is funny, touching and keeps you guessing where the film is going next.