Little White Lies (2010)
"Les petits mouchoirs" (original title)

A near-fatal accident leaves one friend in the hospital while the rest go on their annual vacation. But their secrets and personal grief threaten to drive them apart.

Director:

Guillaume Canet

Writer:

Guillaume Canet (scenario and dialogue)

Stars:

François Cluzet, Marion Cotillard, Benoît Magimel

3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
François Cluzet	...	Max Cantara
Marion Cotillard	...	Marie
Benoît Magimel	...	Vincent Ribaud
Gilles Lellouche	...	Éric
Jean Dujardin	...	Ludo
Laurent Lafitte	...	Antoine
Valérie Bonneton	...	Véronique Cantara
Pascale Arbillot	...	Isabelle Ribaud
Anne Marivin	...	Juliette
Louise Monot	...	Léa
Joël Dupuch	...	Jean-Louis
Hocine Mérabet	...	Nassim
Mathieu Chedid	...	Raphaël (as Matthieu Chedid)
Maxim Nucci	...	Franck
Néo Broca	...	Elliot

Storyline

Every year, Max, a successful restaurant owner, and Véro, his eco-friendly wife invite a merry group of friends to their beautiful beach house to celebrate Antoine's birthday and kick-start the vacation. But, this year, before they all leave Paris, their buddy Ludo is hurt in a serious accident, which sets off a dramatic chain of reactions and emotional responses. The eagerly anticipated vacation leads each of the protagonists to raise the little veils that for years they have draped over what bothers and upsets them. Pretenses become increasingly hard to keep up. Until the moment when the truth finally catches up with them all...

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Plot Keywords:

friend | vacation | secret | group of friends | friendship | 

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Taglines:

The one thing friends can't escape is a few home truths.

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Official Sites:

Europa Corp. [fr] Official Facebook [gb]

Country:

France

Language:

French

Release Date:

20 October 2010 (France)

Also Known As:

Pequeñas mentiras sin importancia

Filming Locations:

Avenue Marceau, Paris 8, Paris, France

Box Office

Budget:

$25,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$43,035 (USA) (31 August 2012)

Gross:

$183,662 (USA) (21 September 2012)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Les Productions du Trésor, EuropaCorp, Caneo Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

154 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Goofs

Eric sends a text message to Marie's cell phone to call him back urgently, while he is in the restaurant with the blonde actress. Marie's cell phone beeps when receiving this text message, but when Marie opens the text message, the cell phone's display shows that it is set on mute ("silencieux").

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Connections

Referenced in Estrenos Críticos: 03/06/2011 (2011)

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Soundtracks

"Are You Gonna Be My Girl"
Written by Nic Cester and Cameron Muncey
Performed by The Jets
Courtesy of MCA Records

User Reviews

You will laugh and cry as you are sure to find at least one character to care about

"Little White Lies" is a multi-relationship drama; one about love, loss and life. It has witty situations, witty lines, and a near-fatal accident. Oh yes, this is an attempt at the hard-to-write comedy-tragedy genre. Thankfully, it doesn't really fail, but instead of being overly comedic or tragic, it plays out mostly dramatically.

There are likely cultural differences to impact how the different audiences relate to this film. It opens with Ludo at a club, partying it up, kissing girls, doing drugs and then speeding through red lights just to get hit by a truck. Based on the other characters' actions and reactions, and other (French) descriptions I have read, Ludo is described as a guy who loves his friends and loves life, living every moment to the fullest. Whereas I would describe him as a guy with a death wish. Regardless, he is now in intensive care, but his friends still want to go on vacation.

Making these characters likable, navigating the comedy-tragedy structure, and all the while keeping us entertained, writer and director Guillaume Canet has set himself up with an almost impossible film to write well. But as a viewer, you just have to find one character you can relate to or empathize with. Everybody is friends so the others will just naturally fall into place.

For me, this film succeeded the most in making me feel as though I was part of the group. I laughed when they laughed, I cried when they cried, and I too just wanted to forget about life and hang out in the water. Because of that inclusion, I never felt too bored during the excessive two and a half hour run-time. But no relationship drama should ever be that long.

I'm going out on a limb and saying that Guillaume Canet is a young, French Woody Allen, or at least he has the potential to become a hopefully-still-young, French Woody Allen. "Little White Lies" is a dialogue-driven, beautifully shot exposé about modern relationships with fully developed characters. He hasn't yet mastered the fine balance between comedy and tragedy, or how to get to the point quickly, and I want him to cast himself, but hopefully I haven't placed unfair expectations onto him.

Each character is having their own personal crisis usually involving the fact that a former lover doesn't like them anymore. That misery coupled with Ludo's tragedy can lead to an awfully somber vacation, but I quite liked the fact that they had their fun during the day and then usually when the alcohol came out, so did the tears and anger. The lies eluded to in the title are more just obvious truths that are barely even concealed, but that doesn't make for nearly as catchy a title. Because these characters are just so well developed, there are always more truths to discover about them.

"Little White Lies" is for drama lovers. You will laugh and you will cry and if you are sure to find a character to connect to, then this film is worth discovering. Apparently France has long since known about the talent that is Canet, now might be the time for the rest of the world to discover him too.