Love etc is a French film, a very French film, about a woman and two men. The film opens with two men driving and talking - we don`t see them but we learn that one is a womaniser and the other picks up the bills. Next we see Benoit - Yvan Attal - placing an ad in the personal columns through which he meets Marie - Charlotte Gainsbourg - and from insecure and awkward beginnings a relationship develops, despite Marie`s introduction to Pierre - Charles Berling - who is the assured womaniser from the opening scene. These three, Benoit, his friend and the woman he loves, bond. They go on summer holidays together where Charles` feelings for Marie begin to change.
This is fairly old territory in film - man plus woman plus best friend equals betrayal, but writer/director Marion Vernoux, in this her second feature for the big screen, imbues it with a lovely sensitivity, making it a precarious journey with tragedy lurking. She`s served well by her performers - Yvan Attal is a beautifully vulnerable Benoit, Charlotte Gainsbourg exquisite as Marie and Charles Berling - so memorable from Ridicule, is attractive and convincing as the reformed rake... the film has some daring moments - the wedding for example - that work, but I was aware of being disappointed when the conventionality of a voice-over, Benoit`s, spoiled something that was purely filmic - Love etc is a cynical film and a wise one.... it made me care quite a lot about Benoit, Marie and Pierre.
