La Prunelle de mes yeux (2016)
Directed by Axelle Ropert

Film Review

Love can make you blind - it's a quaint old adage that Axelle Ropert gives a humorous twist to in this off-beat comedy, her third and zaniest directorial outing so far.  Ropert seems to have acquired a habit of reviving familiar well-worn genres, first blowing the dust off the dysfunctional family drama in La Famille Wolberg (2009), then revitalising the romcom-melodrama hybrid with Tirez la langue, mademoiselle (2013).  For her latest film, La Prunelle de mes yeux (a.k.a. The Apple of My Eye), it's the classic screwball comedy that now gets a thorough overhaul, pepped up with a healthy dose of political incorrectness and the acerbic wit that Ropert exhibited in the last comedy film she scripted, Serge Bozon's Tip Top (2013).  Some may criticise the director for seeking to derive humour from a severe disability, but it's pretty evident right from the off that what she is really mocking is not the visually impaired but society's attitude towards the blind.

The thin strand of satire that would have redeemed this film is perhaps too slender to compensate for the overlaboured comedy that increasingly tends to weigh down the proceedings.  It's possible that Ropert may herself have felt uneasy with the subject matter, and this might explain why the film loses its way in the second half, with the plot diverging all over the place for no good reason other than to bag as many easy laughs as possible.  Despite strong lead performances from Mélanie Bernier and Bastien Bouillon, who both reveal a surprising flair for this kind of spunky comedy, and some enjoyable supporting contributions, La Prunelle de mes yeux struggles to make it as a coherent piece of film entertainment.  Unlike the original screwball comedies (made in Hollywood in the 1930s), which can never fail to raise your spirits, this 21st century French revamp leaves you feeling slightly weary and deflated.  It's not a complete write-off and there are enough comedy nuggets to keep you amused, but Ropert clearly has great difficulty sustaining the humour once the obvious gags have been bagged.  What should have been a breezy romantic comedy ends up as a cumbersome and pretty stilted farce.

Film Synopsis

Théo is a young Greek musician who lives in a Paris apartment block.  Whilst taking the lift one day, he gets to meet one of his neighbours, a pianist named Elise, and having noticed she is blind he tries to pass himself off as visually deficient as well.  At the time, he has no idea why he does this.  Is it to annoy her or to gain her pity?  He cannot tell.  Naturally his brother Leandro is appalled when Théo later recounts this incident to him and orders him to tell the poor woman the truth.  When he next meets Elise Théo cannot bring himself to admit that he lied to her, so he carries on the deception.  Genuinely taken in, Elise starts to take a liking to her neighbour, but as she does so she upsets her colleague Nicolaï, a timid man who has been secretly in love with her for some time...