Signis

Romantics Anonymous/ Les Emotifs Anonymes

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Benoit Poelvoorde, Isabelle Carre, Directed by Jean-Pierre Amaris.

The French title is a better and more accurate, especially when we see Angelique (Isabelle Carre) attending a variation on AA where the participants discuss their highly feeling lives and behaviour.

Angelique is publicly awkward but wants a job at a chocolate factory managed (not too well, they are almost bankrupt) by Jean-Rene (Benoit Poelvoorde). He is more awkward than she and attends sessions with a therapist. The therapist tells him to take someone to dinner (that is a real disaster but Angelique blames herself), then to touch someone, which has some surprising results.

In the meantime, we learn more about Angelique and her extraordinary talent for making perfect chocolates. The factory could make a comeback.

This is a very brief film, quite delightful in its way, with pleasant performances from the two leads as they try to deal with their gawkiness and gaffes, discover their love for each other. It is a fairy tale with touches of realism or a realistic story with touches of fantasy, with the light Gallic touch.

Peter Malone