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THE VALET (LA DOUBLURE) Send This Review to a Friend
An appealing film chosen as the closing night selection of the recent Rendez-Vous with French Cinema series,“The Valet” (“La Doublure”) is a satirical romantic comedy written and directed by Francis Veber and now in release. Impeccably cast and produced, the film stars Daniel Auteuil as a philandering corporate head, Kristen Scott Thomas as his savvy wife onto his escapades, and knock-out of a looker Alice Taglioni as the supermodel-mistress rebelling at un-kept promises of divorce and marriage.
Gad Elmaleh is charming as a parking valet in love with a bookstore owner played by Virginie Ledoyen and rooming with a fellow valet, humorously played by Dany Boon. With his customary ingenious plotting, Veber creates an effort at deception in which the corporate head pays his mistress to live with the valet (Elmaleh) in an attempt to throw his wife off the trail. Myriad, very funny complications develop.
The satirical film is wonderfully stylish, with scenes from the fashion world included. Results are worked out cleverly, and the romp is consistently funny.
Veber notes that although he interviewed model after model—“very nice work”—it wasn’t until he saw actress Taglioni, who had never modeled, that he knew he had the right star.
He sure does. Taglioni not only is fantastic in the looks department, but she does an exquisite job acting, making the model very human and down to earth, not at all in keeping with the image many have of supermodels as creatures in a rarified atmosphere.
As for Auteuil, he is a farceur supreme. He never veers from being the harried manipulator, and director Veber keeps the film speeding along in high comic style. “The Valet” provides a merry, uproarious time graced with some tenderness as well. A Sony Pictures Classics release.
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