MartinHafer "I Do" is an enjoyable, if flawed film. It's far from a great French film but you could certainly do worse and it's a decent date night movie.Luis is the only male in his family now that his father has died. The sisters and mother announce one day that they are tired of him being a bachelor in his 40s and he MUST get married ASAP. So, they begin setting him up with all sorts of women. They even go online and chat up women...pretending to be Luis himself! Not surprisingly, he wants them to leave him alone and sabotages each of these set-ups...after all, Luis is a rather shallow guy and LIKES living the swinging single life. But finally, out of exhaustion with their tactics, he decides to outsmart them. He pays Emma to pretend to be his fiancée and the plan is to eventually have her leave him at the alter...thus freeing him up, at least for a while, from his family's interference. Where all this goes is very predictable--and even though there had been NO CHEMISTRY WHATSOEVER between Luis and Emma, by the end of the film, suddenly and inexplicably they decide to REALLY marry! But as I said, this comes with little warning and the build-up is unrealistically short. Stretching the story out a bit and giving more hints that they were falling in love would have made sense. As for Emma, she NEVER showed any signs and Luis only very near the end...which really hurt the film. It made is seem formulaic and very unrealistic.For a very similar plot but with it being much better made, try "Bollywood/Hollywood"...a wonderful film with pretty much the same premise. However, it is handled much better and is a much more romantic comedy.

Balthazar-5 I love romantic comedies. I love French cinema. Charlotte Gainsbourg was fine in Claude Miller's La Petite Voleuse. But since then, her charmless personality seems to be the death-knell for everything she touches.This is a theoretically fun movie, in which a middle-aged guy tries to get one over on his domineering family. And, being a romantic comedy, we know the way it's going to go. But Gainsbourg seems so affected as the hired-in fiancée, and so emotionally wooden, that even if she had the 'nichons' that her partner would have preferred (as I would), it is doubtful that she would have saved this forlorn if not totally lost film.

alistairp-1 From the opening shots of the lead actor, we are given a early view on how so many mens lives are run by the women in them, and the humour that comes thru with all that goes on in the day to day of 'normal' life.Eric Lartigau, the director picks up on how so many European men feel that they are in complete control of their lives, yet without the help/support of the women around them cannot seem to make things work. The use of facial image throughout the film is superb, and his clever positioning of the senior member of the family (mother) is spot on.While there are more than enough laughs in the movie, it still deals with single parents/adoption and the strength of family in society. Truly rewarding to watch, and again one that only the French seam capable to make.So far one of the best 50 or so Films I have seen this year, and well worth a five start rating. I look forward to adding this one to the DVD collection when it is released and highly recommend it to all ages.

Chris Knipp Forty-Year-Old Virgin meets Pretty Woman: that's the pitch, but it's the initial premise that'ss hard to get by. I never saw why he had to do all this.This comes with no festival laurels, only some good box office (thanks to heavy promotion?) in France and average reviews there. Premise (from which we are not allowed a moment's respite): "Life is good for Luis (Alain Chabat). He's happily single, enjoys his job and is loved, cherished and pampered by his mother and five sisters. But one day, they decide it's time for him to marry. Luis hurriedly hatches a plan…He will find the perfect woman who will charm them. . ., and disappear on the day of the wedding. After that nobody will dare mention the word marriage to him again" (-- from the press kit).The trouble with this comedy is that everything about it seems staged, beginning with the original family (which includes some male members omitted from the description above) and its elaborate dining room meetings and heavy bourgeois trappings. There never was a family like this outside of a French comedy – outside of this French comedy. The rapid fire introduction of family members – a shot for each with less than a sound bite – is typical of one of the film's main methods: it throws excessive amounts of unnecessary information at you in the hopes that it will keep your attention – and keep you from thinking how completely shallow all this contrivance is.Luis is a perfume designer, and this introduces another elaborate set of contrived scenes and characters.Enter Charlotte Gainsbourg. She is the sister (whom strangely Luis did not previously know) of Luis' best friend, and after exhaustive interviews of unsuccessful candidates for the fake bride, she's left.Gainsbourg is a trouper, and a veteran of French film comedy. Those by her husband Yvan Atal were, however, much more nuanced and interesting than this Lupiece of fluff. And Gainsbourg's gamine look is beginning to show some signs of wear (too much dieting, too many cigarettes?). She still has the charm, but maybe she might try taking it into more serious, less frenetic roles.After the wedding, which is lame, and no doubt borrowed from other film weddings rather than any known reality, Luis's mother collapses and is taken to the hospital – another of many fake gestures to liven things up.And guess what happens? Oh, you'll never. Gaionsbourg and Chabat actually fall for each other. Wow. And then things get cute, and it's all over.What a lot of work all this was to put together, and what a bore it is to watch! There are a great many better French comedies out there. Even among the formulaic ones we currently have The Valet/La doublure (Francis Veber), which is far more economical and amusing. Among the more interesting ones is the currently playing in New York Avenue Montaigne/Fauteuils d'orchestre, which was at the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Lincoln Center last year and belatedly got picked up. Or there is Laurent Tirard's (who worked on this) Mensonges et trahisons et plus si affinités--which has the likes of Clovis Cornillac to liven it up.Another related comedy: Tanguy, about a man child who won't leave home. His hanging on with his wealthy parents is closer to contemporary European realities than Luis and his bossy extended family. He doesn't have to get married (though he does); he just has to move out of the house. The whole process is played for laughs, but it begins with a real situation. This doesn't. Mistake.