L’embarras du choix aka The Embarrassment of Choice, written and directed by Eric Lavaine

L’embarras du choix aka The Embarrassment of Choice, written and directed by Eric Lavaine

Wow, what a tragicomedy can erupt out of Tinder!

French films can be mesmerizing, outstanding, fabulous chef d’oeuvres, like The Artist, Amour, Happy End, 400 Blows, Des Hommes et Des Dieux, L’Auberge Espagnole, Manon des Sources and so many more.

The Embarrassment of Choice proves that they can also be exactly like Hollywood fare, which actually is inspired by French originals at times: La Cage aux Folles, Le Diner de Cons and others.

Alexandra Lamy has been the star in a film reviewed here - http://notesaboutfilms.blogspot.ro/ - Vincent, which was really a waste of time, annoying and unpleasant for the most part.

In this story of Choice, she portrays Juliette, a forty years old woman, handsome, attractive, talented, friendly, perseverant, kind, amusing, although at times exceeding the limits.

The heroine is incapable to make up her mind and she is out of a relationship because she cannot decide and choices are made for her by her father, who is a remarkable chef, and her friends.

Since she is single now, Joelle and Sonia, the protagonist’s friends, decide that Juliette has to use Tinder to get out, cope with her adversity, and get over the trauma of a break up.

Paul is the man that the heroine meets in a bar, she finds him more attractive than in the pictures and they like each other, spend a great time together and decide at the end of the first date to date again the following day, when it all seems paradisiacal, again.

At the end of the second day, the heroine wants to come to the hotel room of the Scottish man she so likes- when he said he is from Scotland, she reduced it to England, prompting him to explain that Scotsmen are not pleased by this relocation or diminution.

When they are in the room, the wild woman is ready and starts to undress the man who hesitates, tries to protest, but they soon get naked and have sex, after which, he decides to announce that he is getting married in a short time- was it a couple of weeks?

Juliette storms out of the room, after shouting at her partner that he should have mentioned this upcoming event before they went to bed, not now, when there is not much she can do about it, except get mad and frustrated- without considering for a moment that she had been the one taking the initiative…

The friends have to help the protagonist again, but the most charming, likeable character of all is the husband of one of them- Cedric was the name? - Who is playing the reversed role of househusband, for it is the spouse who works and the man who takes a sabbatical...

When the question of sabbatical as being only one year long at the most is brought up, as opposed to the three years he has been taking time out, Cedric explains with humor that he did not want to keep the house at home, as men did in the repellent past, when women had been exploited.

This man spends a lot of hit time with the cat that he tries to…train, he also uses the pet as a means to address his wife indirectly- mother will go out with her friends- and there is a reaction: do not talk to me through the cat, only she does the same on occasion, for fun.

The women go to a festive celebration and Juliette says that she will jump on the first man who takes the salmon fume from the table and that is Etienne Chevallier, a man that is bewildered by this strange apparition, a woman so drunk that she wants to show him a unique feat she can muster- taking the snail out its shell with her extraordinary tongue.

And it is a sight, continued with an express desire of taking the man to his room- yes, again, but with someone else- on the way she loses one shoe and as Etienne climbs down to find it, the inebriated heroine comes to edge of the river, looks at it and then starts to…swim.

The next day, we have an episode from Cinderella, with the romantic hero coming to the restaurant where Juliette and her father work- the latter is also the owner- and says that he looked through the town for the woman who owns the shoe, wants to have a meal and makes the father angry with his statements that claim items on the menu are not what is on the list.

The father, Richard, is annoyed and upset up to the point where he finds that this younger man has graduated the same prestigious culinary school and is actually an expert on food and wine, but alas, the two men would get along better with each other than Etienne would with Juliette.

A coup de theatre occurs when Paul enters the restaurant, just as the relationship between Etienne and Juliette is taking off, and makes an astounding statement, saying that he has broken off with his would be bride, for he never stopped thinking about the heroine, ever since they made love together.

The Embarrassment of Choice has reached a climax, for the woman has no clue who to choose and a series of supposedly humorous events take place, from the moment when she is talking on the phone with one man, while the other is proposing and in the confusion, both want to marry and she says yes to both- with modern technology, she is on the mobile phone with one- handsets and all- while she accepts the other and hence is a – classic? - French ménage a trois.

What will she do? Well, she ultimately makes a choice, but alas, the scenario does not make the public wait eagerly to see what she does.