L'Arnacoeur (2010)
Directed by Pascal Chaumeil

Film Review

The penchant of French film directors for American films of the forties is not always a good thing, as this rip-off of the Bette Davis-James Cagney vehicle The Bride Came C.O.D. demonstrates.   Fans of Davis and Cagney will recall that the plot of that film had Davis' father hire Cagney, a pilot with cash-flow problems, to kidnap Davis in order to prevent her marrying Jack Carson.   Naturally their mutual antipathy turned to love by the last reel.  L'Arnacoeur offers a minor twist: Romain Duris breaks up romances for a living rather than a one-off.  Apart from that it is the same plot, with Vanessa Paradis' old man hiring him to bust up her wedding. 

This is basically a slick rom-com in search of two charismatic leads.  Almost any French actress in her age group - Virginie Ledoyen, Cécile de France, Isabelle Carré, Audrey Tautou, etc., could phone in a better performance than Paradis.  Meanwhile, Duris does the arrogant, surly macho poseur as well as Benoît Magimel, Gaspard Ulliel, etc., but someone like Thierry Lhermitte is what is needed.  Apparently it was a hit, so what do I know...?

Film Synopsis

With the help of his sister Mélanie and brother-in-law Marc, Alex runs a special kind of agency, one that is dedicated to ending unhappy relationships.  If ever you find yourself stuck in an affair that is going nowhere but cannot find the courage to end it, Alex is just the man you need to break it up and restore some measure of sanity to your life.  Alex is guaranteed to break up any couple, providing he is confident that both parties will be made happier by being separated.  He never agrees to get involved with couples who are perfectly content - until his cash-flow situation becomes so desperate that he has no choice but to accept such a commission.

Alex's latest victims are Juliette, a wealthy heiress, and Jonathan, the Englishman she has fallen desperately in love with.  For some reason, the impending union of these two happy souls does not suit Juliette's bourgeois father, who is determined to scupper the couple's marriage plans at any cost.  The prospect of a huge cash incentive is not something that Alex can afford to turn his nose up at, so he ditches his principles and sets his mind to the task of ruining an innocent woman's love life.  Needless to say, things do not pan out quite as he had intended...