File this one under rom-com. And nothing more. Never mind that Fly Me To The Moon’sproducer and writer Laurent Zeitoun produced heart-warmer The Intouchables, or that its director Pascal Chaumeil worked on revolutionary crime drama, Leon: The Professional. Consider this a catharsis away from art with substance.
Originally titled Un Plan Parfait (The Perfect Plan), Fly Me To The Moonis an easily digestible French number, even for those who shy away from ‘foreign’ movies. It’s the kind of film you’d expect big names like Jennifer Aniston and Jack Black to lay claim to. If only either could speak French. Instead, the thespians testing their romantic compatibility are Diane Kruger and Dany Boon.
The story is simple; Isabelle (Kruger) and Pierre (Robert Plagnol) are madly in love, but despite wishing to tie the knot, Isabelle can’t as her family is cursed with doomed first marriages, but successful second ones. So she, in cahoots with her sister, organises to be married and divorced in Denmark so Pierre can be saved from superstition.
She lucks out on the flight over, sitting beside the obnoxious and rather annoying Jean-Yves (Boon). And you know what happens next – the man she’s to marry stands her up. Isabelle, in her desperation, turns to the next best thing; Jean-Yves. What follows is a rather unbelievable journey through Africa with Isabelle puppy-dogging onto Jean-Yves who, despite her beauty, does little short of mistreating and ignoring her. Against all logic, Isabelle refuses to be dissuaded from her mission.
The actors are well cast, and their performances, first rate, if not over-dramatised in parts (seemingly on purpose). As for the comedy? It sometimes hits, but most of the time it misses, preferring to roll on amiably in its own cut of French cheese, until the oddball ending. It’s all good fun, but nothing life-changing.
2.5/5 stars
BY STEPHANIE YIP
Fly Me To The Moonis in cinemas now.
