Delicate, delicious DELICACY(M) certainly lives up to its name as a delicacy of rom com that elevates a popcorn genre to caviar.
Audrey Tautou is enchanting as Natalie, who plummets from joie de vivre to veuve jeune early in the film.

Her sunny disposition is dimmed but not extinguished as she pours all her energies into her job as a manager of incomparable competence.

Her boss makes a move on her and is rebuffed. Her best friend feels guilty when she becomes pregnant. Her family grieve for both the loss of her husband and the engulfing grief of their daughter.

Then, out of the blue, like the proverbial thunderbolt, she becomes involved with the man least likely to all and sundry.

She is gorgeous, he is gauche, she is gamin, he has a bit of a gut, she is glamorous, and he is gormless. Its opposites attract writ large.

He is Scandi work subordinate, Markus, played with a nebbish Nordic charm by Francois Damiens. Cue Joe Jackson’s Is She Really Going Out with Him and you get the picture.

DELICACY is the creation of two brothers, David & Stephane Foenkinos.

David wrote the novel on which the film is based and the film has the flavours of Truffaut, Tati and Blake Edwards.

A lively and idiosyncratic supporting cast add to the texture of the film as does music and songs by Emilie Simon, an ingredient which finely balances the whimsical and the melancholy.

For those who like finesse and subtlety in their rom coms, DELICACY is just the ticket.

(c) Richard Cotter

4 May, 2012