Chic! (2015) User Reviews

French version of _The Proposal_ and a dozen similar movies

[name99-92-545389 · 5/10 · 29 August 2015]

The most interesting thing about this movie is seeing how very like a Hollywood movie it was, in spite of being French. We have a very standard plot --- driven neat-freak boss interacts with laid-back messy slob, they fight, they interact some more, they fall in love.

Unfortunately we also get the standard problems with the genre:

• No real reason is ever presented for why these two opposites would fall in love, apart from the fact that they spend some time in close proximity.

• The more unsavory aspects of the boss's behavior are excused as more or less acceptable in an artistic temperament (a fantasy Hollywood loves to tell us, and hopes we will one day believe, for rather obvious self-serving reasons).

• We're supposed to believe that our two adults, once they've found each other will compromise to both become driven (but not too driven) and neat (but not too neat); but it always seems to be that the driven, neat person has to compromise rather more than the disorganized slob...

I'd rate it as worth watching because of the exoticism, but as a US movie I'd have abandoned it after 15 min. The only thing that makes a movie like this worth watching is the comedy, and there simply wasn't enough of that to justify its existence in this genre.

On the positive side, the lead actress is a delight to watch. She's not exactly beautiful, but she carries, clothes , and projects herself so well that it doesn't matter. (Which makes it even more of a travesty to imagine that she'd settle for a slob in her life. In the last 10 minutes or so, you basically see her carriage melt away and I, for one, do not see this as a great triumph, an improvement in who she is.)

Fun way to pass the time

[sally_edsall · 6/10 · 19 March 2016]

I saw this at the French Film Festival in Sydney, 2016. I'm an avid watcher of what I call "fashion- porn" movies - from biopics about designers to docos based on the fashion industry or magazines etc.

In the absence of any of these this year,I went to this film, and found it seductive and charming.

It's one in the endless series of rom-coms that the French film industry seems capable of churning out every year, and yes, there is a traditionally happy "boy gets girl" ending. Along the way there's a divaesque turn by Fanny Ardant - she seemed to be having a lot of fun with the role, but for all that seemed surprisingly wooden.

Not the greatest film ever, and I can't see it getting a general release in English speaking countries, but it was an amusing way to spend an hour and a half in the cinema.

I would drive over her on that dark street

[alansabljakovic-39044 · 5/10 · 4 September 2019]

Cute little French comedy but done with a lot of flaws. Cliche story with characters that aren't likeable and had zero characterisation. This movie is for pure relaxation and I didn't even mean to watch it but it was on TV and it is contagious.

Predictably checking all the predictable boxes

[dierregi · 4/10 · 17 October 2022]

The main problems of this comedy are the two male characters and total predictability. Hélène is a stereotypical career woman, uptight and harsh, a fixer working for the abominable Alain. They both work for designer Alicia (Ardant) yet another stereotypical female, as the passionate woman in need of a male "muse" to finish her collection.

The plot twist should be Julien, the unlikely male muse, actually, Hélène's gardener, a rough Norman guy, whom Hélène just fired and Alice met by chance. As you can guess, opposites attraction is at work and the most unlikely couple of sloppy gardener and uptight fixer is on the way to lovers' paradise, bar a few obstacles.

The actress playing Hélène is actually quite good and Ardant is suave and graceful enough to make amends for her selfish and manipulative character. Unfortunately, the guy playing Julien is very unappealing with a thin face and fragile frame and his character is badly dressed, unshaved, inarticulate, charmless, and disdainful, hardly "muse" material. It's impossible to believe that not one but two sophisticated women would fall for him.

In fact, unattractive actors make suspended disbelief impossible. Much worse is the short, plumpish, blondish guy playing Alain. His character is supposed to be obnoxious but he overdoes wildly in a role that would have been better played straight and cool.

Some of the dialogues are really funny, but the plot deteriorated towards the end, when - for instance - Alice's workers invade Hélène impossible luxurious villa calling it "ugly" and Hélène is ready in a moment to drop a job she fought hard to get. Weird.

French comedy on the high price paid by fashion victims

[t-dooley-69-386916 · 8/10 · 6 April 2015]

Helene (Marina Hands – 'Tell No-one') works for a Fashion House that of the capricious Alicia Ricosi (Fanny Ardant). Ms Ricosi is putting together her new collection when her lover deserts her – she needs inspiration to work and so has an artistic hissy fit and gives up. Helene is a fixer and so has to find a new muse. Her boss is a quintessential coward and bully and swerves all blame in a master class of deflection leaving Helene to take the rap – hence she is a complete cow to nigh on everyone else.

She also has a nice house that she is getting landscaped but decides to fire the gardener just because she feels like being a biatch. Well fate has a way of bringing the most unlikely of souls together and as the sands of time run out for the new collection so does Alicia meet the recently fired gardener and voilà a muse is born. What follows is a story of ups and downs, lies, cover ups and a pretension smörgåsbord – that is actually very funny in places.

Director Jérôme Cornuau has made a film that is both original and charming. His main man is not classically good looking either and I very much appreciated that an ordinary man could stir emotions like he does here. The laughs are worth waiting for but there are also other issues examined here, that of career progression over integrity, idol worship, the fickleness of fashion and the complete duplicity that is concomitant with those that move in high places. This is a good ride though and has Gallic warmth underneath the well observed pretension. A bit of a love story, a bit of a fashionista expose and a bit of drama; not a bad effort at all and one I can wholeheartedly recommend.