My Wife Is An Actress: A Jealous Knave

Yvan Attal wrote, directed and starred in this film and it shows. No one told him that no one gets as obsessively jealous as his character anymore, even in American sitcoms. The setup is, well, read the title. She's not just an actress but an apparently famous actress because everyone refers to her by her first name, Charlotte.

Set in Paris, London and on the Eurostar, Yvan shuttles back and forth between their home (in Paris) and Charlotte's latest film. Several gags - well, one big gag - liven up the movie but mostly its a tedious affair. For some reason, we're supposed to believe that Yvan is envious of John (played by Terrence Stamp), a blowhard English actor whom Charlotte is starring with. This leads to Yvan taking acting lessons, meeting a pretty aspiring actress (prettier, in fact, than Charlotte if you ask me) while Charlotte, driven crazy by Yvan's erratic behaviour, starts to fall for John. Well, it's a romantic comedy so you know how it will end up.

There's also an incoherent sub-plot involving Yvan's pregnant sister who is obsessed with Jewish people and wants to circumcize her son even though, I think, she isn't Jewish, or maybe she is, it's never really clear or its some sort of French humor that doesn't translate.

Grade: 2/5 Stars (would have been 1 star but the Big Gag scene deserves one star for creativity)

Recommended Venue: If anything, this is a date film, which you might use to impress a rather dim women easily impressed by anything that's French. Fact is, though, there are better French films for that purpose (try The Housekeeper)