Irène (2002)

Gripping story with well-crafted characters

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Here is another example of sentimental comedy. Yep, you might say, well, here's just one more girl-meets-boy situation, but... The main character, Irene, or Irène as it is spelled in French, is a not-that-young girl, living what seems a free life, and why not, apparently enjoying her life. Her friends (girls!) comfort her in living her life as it is. But... When love strikes, no one is ever able to know in advance where or when it will. So does Irène, who then has to question her attitude toward men in general and toward this particular one. This movie is the first "long" by director Eric Calbérac. It features nicely described characters, be they Irène's parents or workmates. Though dealing with a classical situation, it is worth seeing, it being without any pretense, as it does not put forward any theory about the rite of mating among civilized human beings. The characters are but ordinary people, they live nearly ordinary lives, and fall normally in love. It reminds me of my own feelings when I met the love of my life, with whom I wanted to live and whom I did miss every second we were apart. When I see this movie, I fall in love again, and I want everyone around me to be in love. Thanks a lot, Irène, and Eric Calbérac as well for making me feel like this. By the way, I'm French too. Will any one from abroad venture into commenting this film?

*** I am french, so this statistic is a good benchmark, after 31 movies, to review the quality of my country… Or my personal taste… *** Proper of a good actress (or actor) is to make interesting a bad film, and here is a classic example.A non-existent scenario: the plot is without surprises and holds on a postage stamp so I would not risk to summarize. You'll watch a succession of more or less successful scenes, where the camera follow each detail of fear of not having enough of footage. Some characters are foolish: why the boss, why the boyfriend in Japan, if there isn't any development...If the director wanted make a point with the nonsense of Irene's life, the contract is more than largely filled. In short, nothing to put under the tooth EXCEPT... that Cecile De France is a very talented actress. She illuminates each scene. All the emotions are in her partition. Change Cécile, and this film would have had least notoriety.In conclusion, the only quality of this bad movie is to introduce a new arrival in the cinematographic landscape, and all the bad movies can't say that much