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Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Sadly Over-hyped

Fantastic!

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Featherweight French comedy, laughs lighter than an over whipped soufflé. Man, his sister and brother-in-law operate a small outfit designed to break apart unhappy couples. Prevent the doe eyed innocent from marrying the cheat, the abuser, the jerk. All's fair. Only rule - they do not break up happy relationships. Before you can say, "that sounds ..." the man owes thousands to a loan shark and a very juicy offer comes from a gangster type to stop his daughter's upcoming marriage. The engaged couple is deliriously happy, yet the heartbreaker needs the money. Narrative not only thin and predictable, but more than a little creepy. To learn about the fiancé, a lot of time is spent spying and stalking. Cameras in bedroom and bathroom. Nothing is humiliating is acting shown, but if you think about it, someone was watching everything. Fans of Romain Duris, he has better films out there.

Often I wonder at how much better films made in continental Europe often seem to be than typical English-language movies; of course, part of the explanation may simply be that, as a resident of England, one only tends to see the best of European cinema. And as if to prove the point, here comes 'Hertabreaker', a film whose sole raison d'etre appears to be to demonstrate that the French can make a romantic comedy every bit as drearily predicable as the Americans. All the expected elements are here: the grand wedding, the affluent backdrop, the preposterously constructed plot, the nymphomaniac best friend, the character who falls in love without meaning to, the heavy reliance on a familiar soundtrack, and of course, the eventual, inevitable choice between two very different men. Just as predictable is the absence of any real laughs. Right at the end, I did wonder if the film was going to surprise me with a departure from the normal ending for this kind of rubbish; I won't spoil the plot by stating whether or not it did, but I will say that by this point, I was well past caring either way.

What a joy! A quite mad French rom-com which is very funny, not over-subtle and completely bewitching.Romain Duris is Alex, a professional breaker-up of the relationships of "unknowingly unhappy" women. He's good. He's an artist, driving himself into the arms of a loan shark to pursue his calling for the benefit of, well, of the people who pay him to separate their friends, sisters, daughters from A N Other unsuitable man. The joyous thing about what he does – what saves it from cynicism or worse, is that the women clearly benefit too, walking away with their eyes open, feeling loved. But he's about to meet his match: Vanessa Paradis is Juliette, his next and most challenging target, a woman who appears to be perfectly happy. He and his crack support team have a week to pull off the impossible: separate a perfect woman from the perfect man she's about to marry and be Happy Ever After with. He can't afford to question why he's being asked to do this.I think the 'classic' French male leading man is often an acquired taste to Brits. On paper – and even on first impressions – it's hard to find Alex likable, and yet that's exactly what he, and the film, achieves. It helps that he's something of a 'little' guy: he's broke, and genuinely loves his job, and the likes of Juliette look down their noses at people like him. He exudes a brilliant physical energy throughout the film: it's this – and his passion and determination, never doing anything by halves – that's crucial to his ultimately winning the audience, and his 'victim', over.Of course, the reserved, poised Juliette might also appear, at least at first, somewhat unlikeable, with her very expensive lifestyle and her perfect fiancé. But her secret lowbrow tastes, her playfulness, and her seeing the good that we see in Alex, win us over too. It helps that Paradis the actress is a bit of an icon, a bit edgy; even slightly odd looking (sorry is that me? That doesn't mean I think she isn't beautiful!). He's slightly odd looking too.The film goes at a cracking pace, and features bedroom farce, classic French meringue-light comedy, visual gags, slapstick, crime, punishment, an English stooge, pleasing background music, knowing references – you name it. But amazingly it works. It makes wonderful use of "Dirty Dancing" which I'll leave you to enjoy in all its guilty glory – admit it, you loved it too! Shot beautifully in ice-cream-coloured Monaco, everyone looks great – expect no less from a French romantic comedy.I think men should be obliged to buy this for their girlfriends and wives immediately. You never know, men might even like it too…!

excerpt, more at my location - Most Hollywood romantic comedies manage to be about as funny as having a tooth pulled with a pair of rusty pliers and as romantic as a Valentine's Day card written by accountants, but French director Pascal Chaumeil's debut feature is a breath of fresh air: stylish, witty, and with a romantic streak that is sweetly endearing, not sickly. Heartbreaker may not rewrite the rom com rulebook, but it's certainly a cut above the norm.In many ways, Heartbreaker is a thoroughly conventional rom com, and an ideal date movie for the unadventurous, but director Pascal Chaumeil is clearly a new talent who knows how to make something ordinary a little out of the ordinary.