A lovely little soufflé of cinema, ROMANTICS ANONYMOUS (M) is a tasty sweet treat that should please the crowd that found CHOCOLAT so enchanting.
Isabelle Carre plays Angelique, a shy chocolatier who hides her cocoalossal confection perfection under the proverbial bushel.
Struggling choc-shop proprietor Jean Rene, played with bashful brio by Benoit Poelvoorde, suffers similar awkward timidity, hires Angelique as his new sales rep, setting the stage for a star crossed lovers scenario that’s sweet without slipping into syrupy sentimentality.
There’s a touching pathos at work here, deftly nuanced by director and co- screenwriter, Jean Pierre Ameris, who turns tension and turmoil into tenderness and trust in a tantalising truffle of a film.
The best comedy comes out of tribulation and this couple has it in spades, emotional timidity trowelled on. He is seeing a shrink about his shyness; she is attending Emotions Anonymous meetings, a 12 step intimacy program for the emotionally challenged.
Panic and pain propel this picture, yet it is packed with an endearing empathy for these people, vulnerable introverts; lonely hearts in cardiac arrest.
A polished ensemble of supporting actors mostly playing a chorus of chocolate makers and locations in the Lyon/Rhone area add to this comedy confection. But this isn’t a movie about eye candy, this is a film about soul sugar.
Who would have thought fear could be so funny?!
© Richard Cotter
12th April, 2012
Tags: Sydney Movie Reviews- ROMANTIC ANONYMOUS, Jean Pierre Ameris, Isabella Carre, Benoit Poelvoorde,