A friend in need

This is a warm human comedy about the difficulty in finding a true friend when you desperately need one. A mercenary antique dealer in middle age Francois (Daniel Auteuil) has spent most of his life collecting beauty in the form of object's d'art but without making any close friends. At his birthday dinner business partner Catherine (Julie Gayet) tells him half in jest that he has no real friends only acquaintances. The other guests reluctantly agree and ofcourse Francois is quite devastated. Sure he's got a great apartment and lifestyle, and he thinks because his days are booked up with meetings his life is full of people that love him. Not so.

Catherine makes a bet that if he can actually produce a "best" friend in ten days he may keep the valuable Greek Vase of antiquity that he's acquired that very day at auction, charging it to the their company. If he can't produce the elusive friend the vase will be hers. Francois accepts the wager quite happily thinking it will be no problem. Later after going through his address book and discovering his various contacts are not much enthused about him at all, he starts to wonder.

In his increasingly desperate efforts to find a friend Francois keeps running into exuberant young taxi driver Bruno (Dany Boon) who is a nut on trivia and as outgoing as Francois isn't. So Francois finally asks Bruno to teach him the way to win friends. Which according to Bruno boils down to three S's - being sociable, smiling and sincere. Despite very different attitudes these two unlikely colleagues manage to happily solve the problem with setbacks and surprises along the way. Interestingly towards the end of the film Bruno is able to prove his trivia knowledge is more valuable than suspected.

Daniel Auteuil is something of a veteran in French films, a consummate actor since back in the superb Jean de Florette, and Manon des Sources (1986) and here he gives another sensitive and beautifully underplayed performance. Dany Boon ( The Valet, Joyeux Noel) is quite marvelous as the talkative trivia spouting taxi driver just the right foil to Auteuil's self centered cold Francois. Their scenes together are a delight.

Directed with the experienced guidance of Patrice Leconte whose previous films include Man on the Train, The Girl on the Bridge, Ridicule, and The Hairdresser's Husband, Leconte manages to extract gentle humour from situations that often are full of pathos. Loneliness is the underlying problem
for the men in this picture, as Bruno says "being friends with everyone is the same as having no friends at all". Francois at first doesn't notice he's lonely but we find him later wandering the streets of Paris sadly watching the happy couples pass by him. It sums up the theme of the movie. The script is by Jerome Tonnerre based on a story by Olivier Dazat. The photography is handled by Jean-Marie Dreujou with some finely tuned images, and a special eye for the antiques that enhance a number of scenes. Which all goes to make a very heartwarming and watchable film.

John Bale

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My Best Friend

Our rating:

Director: Patrice Leconte
Cast: Daniel Auteil, Julie Gayet, Danny Boon
Release: 24 May, 2007
Rated: M

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