Toi et Moi (2006)

Maybe seeing this after the unpleasant Texas and the idiotic Stay Alive colored my perception, but this film is pretty affable in its own cute way. It's about two sisters in France and their romantic failings. It's pretty chick-flick level stuff, and I know that if it were American, Meg Ryan would probably play the role of Ariane; that knowledge didn't keep me from enjoying the film on its own level. I mean, it's at least self-aware enough to know it's working with chick-flick material; it commits to that by making Ariane a writer of cheesy romance stories and having her fantasize about said stories as a kind of periodic narrative interruption. These kitschy, candy-colored interludes never cease to be amusing in their ripe hyperbole. Also, Marion Cotillard is extraordinarily cute. I don't remember her in Big Fish or A Very Long Engagement, and I wasn't able to finish watching Love Me if You Dare, so I guess that's why I never noticed it before. But she's damn cute. The whole movie could have been just her tremulous mug and I would have been happy.

Grade: B-