Review: Beautiful Lies (12A), 104 minutes, City Screen, York *** (From York Press)

Review: Beautiful Lies (12A), 104 minutes, City Screen, York ***

9:28am Saturday 10th September 2011 in Film reviews By Charles Hutchinson

AFTER the stylish Riviera battle of wits of Priceless, director Pierre Salvadori reunites with leading lady Audrey Tautou for another frothy French comedy with no more depth than Tautou’s tattoo on her neck.

Once she was Amelie – and indeed forever she will be Amelie – but here she is 30-year-old chatterbox Emilie, who runs a hairdressing salon with endless streams of well-meant advice for clients and friends alike.

Alas, her mother Maddy (Natalie Baye) seems beyond such help, slumped in a slough of despond after being left by her husband.

However, when Emilie receives an anonymous love letter (from the salon handyman, Sami Bouajila’s pathologically shy Jean), she concocts a crazy cupid plan to cure Maddy’s blues. Simply, change the name on the letter and re-direct its poetic sentiments to the despairing Maddy.

Sure enough, the Byronic declaration of love spurs Maddy into re-discovering the will to live, but now Emilie must conjure up more letters and find someone willing to play the author.

As with Priceless, Salvadori roots his comedy in predicament and awkward moments and keeping the audience one step ahead. Once more, however, his conceits lack a lightness of touch, and he tends to irritate more than amuse, the more his arch film progresses. Meanwhile, Tautou in comic mode still can’t escape the shackles of the quirky Amelie. Perhaps she never will.