The French comedy farce has become as reliable a genre as Hollywood’s romantic comedy. In any given year, you know there will be at least a few of them and when the cast is good, you know they’ll be, at the minimum, watchable.
“The Valet” (“La Doublure”) was written and directed by Francis Veber, best known for “The Dinner Game” and “The Closet.” In it, a self-made millionaire CEO, Pierre Levasseur (Daniel Auteuil, who was also in “The Closet”), is having an affair with sexy supermodel Elena Simonsen (Alice Taglioni) and they are surreptitiously photographed by a paparazzo on the street.
Pierre’s wife, Christine (Kristin Scott Thomas), sees the photo and her suspicions are confirmed. Unfortunately for Pierre, she is the majority stockholder in his business and divorce for him will be a costly affair.
That third man is the hapless and loveless -- and not terribly attractive -- Francois Pignon (Gad Elmaleh), who works as a valet at a restaurant at the Trocadero, across the Seine from the Eiffel Tower and who shares his tiny apartment with a co-worker, the still more hapless and loveless Richard (Dany Boon).
So, Pierre pays Elena and Francois to pretend to be an unlikely couple until the storm ebbs. Elena asks for a whopping figure but vows to return it when Pierre fulfills his long-held promise to her and divorces his wife. Francois asks for a smaller amount to help Emilie (Virginie Ledoyen) -- his friend since childhood -- pay off the debts she took on when opening her dream bookshop.
Did we mention that Francois has just asked Emilie to marry him and she declined?
Of course, at this point, hijinks ensue. The press is watching Elena and Francois and Pierre has his people watching them, too. Although he set up the ruse, he’s insanely jealous of his lover sharing an apartment with another man.
Best of all, Christine isn’t fooled for a minute, and she’s watching the couple, too, mostly for entertainment.
Will Pierre get his comeuppance? Will the unlikely couple find an unexpected spark? Will Emilie rue turning down Francois? We’re not going to spoil any of the fun by telling you.
Some of the jokes are predictable, but “The Valet” is fun. It isn’t deep, it isn’t life changing, and it's certainly not the best example of a modern French comedy, but it’s 85 minutes of good entertainment. It’s rare to see a movie in which Auteuil isn’t the best actor on screen, but this is an example of one. That’s not to say he’s not on his game, but Elmaleh, Ledoyen, Boo, Berry and Taglioni easily match him and Thomas is especially fun as the cool, calculatingly vengeful woman scorned.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
