Beautiful Lies

It's hard to know who we're supposed to be rooting for in Beautiful Lies. Pierre Salvadori's French romantic comedy never quite finds the right tone of either romance or comedy, and its collection of selfish, manipulative characters eventually wear out their welcome. Audrey Tautou plays Emilie, a hairdresser who receives an anonymous love letter. It has been sent by besotted handyman Jean (Sami Bouajila) but she uses his amorous words to cheer up her depressed mother Maddy (Nathalie Baye) instead. That's a decent enough premise for a light screwball farce, and Salvadori's bright, breezy direction initially suggests that's exactly what Beautiful Lies is going to be. But the humour is strained and following the unsympathetic characters as they traverse this overly convoluted plot makes the film feel like more of a chore than it should be. By the time Salvadori has finally wrapped things up and paired off his characters in a predictable fashion, many viewers may feel that these foolish and tiresome individuals deserve each other. [Philip Concannon]