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I love this movie so much

Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

In a span of thirty years, Francis Veber's movies, in the same vein than Billy Wilder's work, have always been consistently good and intelligent, only inspiring some cringe-worthy American remakes. "The Valet" was actually worse than any potential Americanized version, and the opening scene sent its tone of lame predictability.Gad El Maleh and Dany Boon ride classy expansive cars and make a few snobbish comments as if they tried to impress each other. Later, the camera pans at the back of their shirts where we 'discover' they are parking valets. Anyone familiar with the trailer or the basics of humor could have seen this gag coming a mile away. It wasn't a bad one actually but it highlights the film's main problem: many promising things on the paper but a failure at the execution, starting with the plot.Yes, a rich man caught with his mistress by a paparazzi and forced to pretend that the lover was actually the 'other guy' on the cover, was a juicy premise, a typical Veberian screwball comedy full of malicious intertwining maneuvers and the fetish character François Pignon, previously played by Pierre Richard, Jacques Villeret and Daniel Auteuil. But this time, Auteuil is the 'bad guy': Levasseur, the businessman who owes his fortune to his wife Christine. Kristin Scott Thomas plays (once again) her rich icy woman, with such a frigid authority it almost excuses Levasseur's affair.And Veber's camera is so enamored with the beautiful, tall and young mistress Elena that it never elevates her above her sole, defining status: the trophy girl, Levasseur's first and then Pignon. It gets worse because of Taglioni's performance, she's good actually but there's too much self-awareness about her physical assets, she's so in-control of the situation, that the scheme orchestrated by Levasseur and his cunning lawyer (Richard Berry) backfires from the start, especially since Christine is determined to find the truth. Both engage their best detectives to watch the lovers and wait for the 'faux pas' (although with diverging motives).In a better movie, Pignon could have cheerfully welcomed the opportunity but the script insists on his mediocrity and gentleness as if both were sides of the same coin. Here, he's a loser who can't even convince his childhood friend (Virginie Ledoyen) to marry him, you got to wonder what made him so sure she would say yes. He's a nice guy and a loser even by 'Pignon' standards, Pierre Richard and Jacques Villeret played Pignons with colorful personalities, even Auteuil in "The Closet" wasn't a decent simpleton, but Pignon, as played by Gad, is so flatly gentle and faithful (to the woman who rejected him) that it confined to 'asexual' contrivance. In other words, he was boring.It's like making Pignon a decent fellow was a priority over spicing up the plot a little, Elena is nothing but a trophy girl. "She'll call you back", she says about his girlfriend, and she's right. Pignon's situation reminded me of the times where I met a beautiful cousin in the street and pretended (later) to my drooling friends she was an old acquaintance. Pignon's aura is elevated by his company and feminine jealousy does the rest. In this movie, women are driven by the shallowest motives and men are two-dimensional plotters or imbeciles. But labels are still prevalent and the 'hero' must triumph while the bad guy must get his comeuppance.Levasseur starts as a troubled man trying to save his marriage and fortune, he spends the whole second act teased by his wife and worrying about the seemingly sensual interactions between Elena and Pignon, in a tense state that works like a punishment already, but for some reason, he's turned into a pathetic last-minute villain at the end of the film. He knows his wife framed him, his mistress manipulated him yet he blames everything on Pignon. And Pignon gets the girl he's always loved because she realized how 'interesting' he was. Superficiality runs in this film, it practically gallops, and don't even get me started on the cocky ringtones Don Juan.From the very director who signed such gems as "The Dinner Game" or the recent "Shut Up", here's a movie whose characters are only props to highlight the shallowness of our time when they're not pawns… there's no redeemable character in that sad mess. I could feel the director slipping and I'm not surprised this was his last film before a remake (that failed). There's something that just rings false all through the film, and that includes the obsession with cell phones as if the old-school director wanted to modernize his movies. That might explain the casting of Gad as Pignon.Pignon is a lovable outcast, but they tried too hard with Gad, he's got the handsomeness of a romantic leading man, and Gad belongs to the breed of comedians with a rather limited range. As Pignon, his sweetness was also wrapped in two facial expressions: crisped mouth with sad or puzzled eyes that either scream "I'm innocent!" or "What have I done?" in every frame. Where's the goofiness? Where's the genuine likability? Well, I guess it was somewhat present in the comic relief role, Dany Boon who played his buddy, he would have made a better Pignon… in my opinion.The whole film is just a succession of scenes victims of a bad editing, like build-ups for gags that never happen, and when they do, they fall flat, except for a clever nod to "The Dinner Game", Veber's masterpiece. "The Valet" still met with moderate success, benefiting from Veber's reputation and the aura of all the leading stars, but the film never holds up to its premise.And don't get me started on the ending, Veber used to end his movies with an icing on the cake, here, the cake was literally thrown to our faces, or was it to point out that this whole mess was only a "travesty" of comedy?

On the surface, "La Doublure" (literal French translation: "The Stand-In") may seem like a standard switcheroo rom-com, but it's so much more than that. It's a classic morality play, not unlike something from Shakespeare or Molière, meticulously written and executed to deliver laughs as well as deeper messages.You can watch it on either level. If you're in it just for laughs and some funny twists, there's plenty of them. If you sink your teeth deeper, there's a lot of clever symbolism and some nice allegories. For example, take our hero's job: a parking valet. He gets to drive all the hottest cars in the city but they're not his to keep. Just like the hot supermodel he gets temporarily paired with.Director/writer Francis Veber is known for this sort of comedy. I don't want to label it "intelligent comedy" because there's nothing snotty or pretentious about it. Instead it's good comedy for the masses but with a clever edge. A note about Francis Veber: his standard recipe is to create an "everyman" character (who is always named François Pignon in every movie) and place him in an absurd situation that is the result of the strangeness/hypocrisy of people around him. François is always an innocent patsy, and the nuttiness just follows him wherever he goes. In that respect, it's the opposite of the Shakespearean formula where the "fool" is wise to everyone's ways and in control of the drama despite appearances. The Vebersian formula is to make the "fool" literally a fool, and that makes us connect with him & hope things turn out for the best. Another excellent example of this strategy is in Veber's film "Le dîner de cons" ("The Dinner Game") which is the film that introduced me to the genius of Francis Veber.If you watch the DVD extras, you'll see how meticulous Veber was in making this film. Every word was carefully scripted, and the delivery was hammered down to a science. You'd never guess it sitting in the audience's seat because it comes across so smooth and easygoing. But make no mistake, everything was carefully planned. There is nothing sloppy about this, or any other film of Francis Veber.The result is 90 minutes of pinpoint comedic timing, great performances from every actor (including the minor roles), and a fun experience as if you've seen a well produced stage performance.If you like classy comedies with picture-perfect accuracy, movies like Frank Oz's "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" and "Death at a Funeral" or Blake Edwards' "Breakfast at Tiffany's", I think you'll really like this. Another one, also starring the excellent Gad Elmaleh, is "Priceless" (the modern French version of "Breakfast at Tiffany's"). All of these comedies are in a class by themselves and well worth the price of admission.

Known in English as "The Valet," this sparkling comedy written and directed by Francis Veber tells the story of Pierre, a wealthy businessman (Daniel Auteuil) who seeks to conceal his affair with supermodel Elena (Alice Taglioni) from his wife (Kristin Scott Thomas), who is the majority owner of his entire business, by convincing her that Elena is actually in love with Francis Pignon (Gad Elmaleh), a parking attendant. For 20 million Euros, Elena agrees to move into Francois' shabby apartment and pretend to be his lover. Their relationship is monitored from an empty building across the street by a detective Pierre's lawyer has hired for that purpose. Since Francois' apartment lacks curtains, Francois and Elena are forced to share a narrow bed in order to confirm their relationship. Since Pierre's wife knows what's going on, she intervenes to compound Pierre's jealousy and to force him into a corner. There are a number of clever plot twists that add to the hilarity. Auteuil and Thomas are established stars but Gad Elmaleh and Alice Taglioni are also excellent. I never heard of Ms. Taglioni but she is an outstanding beauty. Also acquitting herself well in this very funny movie is Virginie Ledyen as Emilie, a bookstore owner, whom Francois really does love. He's accepted the arrangement with Elena only because it will allow him to pay off Emilie's bank loan for the bookstore.

Both my boyfriend and I greatly enjoyed this movie. It was a good thing that it was subtitled, because we were laughing so loud we would not have been able to hear the dialogue. There is a certain way that American movies of this sort go, and The Valet did not follow the "princess and the toad" formula, which made it fresh and interesting to us. It was also refreshing to get so much humor without crudeness, profanity or idiotic gags that have become so commonplace- it was just genuinely funny. I don't know how believable people expect movies to be, but the only character that was hard to swallow was just how nice the super-model was. Not knowing any supermodels personally, I won't be the judge of that. Watch The Valet for a fun evening of lighthearted entertainment.