Patrice Leconte is the French film-maker known for serio-comic dramas like The Man on the Train, The Girl on the Bridge and The Widow of Saint-Pierre. This picture is a rather broader comedy than usual. You might well find it very silly, but it grew on me, and it's certainly based on an interesting premise. Daniel Auteuil is a successful Parisian art dealer called François, divorced, with a grownup daughter, a beautiful girlfriend, and a hectic, glamorous social life. But he is thrown into crisis when someone points out that he does not have a single friend: an honest-to-goodness pal who has nothing to do with his work. A lifetime of cultivating contacts and status-symbol associates has left him utterly friendless. So he sets about searching for a real friend, and finds himself taking instruction from gregarious cab-driver Bruno (Dany Boon) on how to be friendly. The lessons are ineffective but François wonders: why can't Bruno himself be his friend? It's a jolly, undemanding romp ending in the studios of the French TV version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, whose "phone-a-friend" feature has never been so emotionally charged.
Cert 12A