SHALL WE KISS?
Writer-director-actor, Emmanuel Mouret’s latest offering is a love story within a love story. Émilie (Julie Gayet) and Gabriel (Michaël Cohen) have a chance meeting that leads to dinner and drinks. Gabriel asks for an innocent goodbye kiss leading Émilie to decline and recount the story of a “friend” whose life dramatically changed by such a seemingly small action. Judith (Virginie Ledoyen) and Nicolas (Mouret) were platonic friends when a love-starved Nicolas asks Judith to sleep with him. They fall in love after this first electric encounter and then devise an elaborate scheme to rid themselves of their respective partners. Things go awry and ultimately highlight all that is clumsy and comic in courtship. This slow-burning, layered romance story spreads the main idea a little thinly and relies heavily on dialogue to provide sophisticated observation on fidelity and love.
