'PRICELESS' FEELS CHEAP AND TAWDRY.Byline: Glenn Whipp Film Critic The premise at the heart of the sun-dappled misfire "Priceless" is that, after a night of incredible, alcohol-fueled sex, a mild-mannered shlub shlub n. Slang Variant of schlub. falls head-over-heels for a slinky slink·y adj. slink·i·er, slink·i·est 1. Stealthy, furtive, and sneaking. 2. Informal Graceful, sinuous, and sleek: wore a slinky outfit to the party. gold digger and is willing to put up with all kinds of abuse to win her heart. This requires a pretty fair suspension of disbelief Suspension of disbelief is an aesthetic theory intended to characterize people's relationships to art. It was coined by the poet and aesthetic philosopher Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1817 to refer to what he called "dramatic truth". . The sex doesn't seem all that great for our hero to throw away his moral compass. William Hurt William Hurt (born March 20, 1950) is an Academy Award-winning American actor. Biography Early life Hurt was born in Washington, D.C., the son of Claire Isabel (née McGill), who worked at Time, Inc.,[1] and Alfred McCord Hurt, who worked for the U.S. tossing a chair through the window in "Body Heat" to get to Kathleen Turner? That made sense. But cutie-pie Audrey Tautou ("Amelie") doesn't send off enough heat here to inspire a man to launch a paper airplane. Writer-director Pierre Salvadori doesn't want to invite that kind of scrutiny, hoping his audience will lose itself in the chic French Riviera locales and forget about all the morally reprehensible rep·re·hen·si·ble adj. Deserving rebuke or censure; blameworthy. See Synonyms at blameworthy. [Middle English, from Old French, from Late Latin repreh behavior happening on screen. But this French import offers so little in the way of charm or story that you can never shake the fundamental issue that the unseemly Irene (Tautou) just isn't a woman who would get any thinking man's mojo risin' for more than a one-night stand. Jean (Gad Elmaleh, making like Mr. Bean) works at a Biarritz resort, catering to the guests' every insipid whim. Filling in behind the bar one night, Jean spies Irene, who mistakes him for a fat cat. Since her creaky creak·y adj. creak·i·er, creak·i·est 1. Tending to creak. 2. Shaky or infirm, as with age; decrepit: creaky knee joints; a creaky regime. sugar daddy is asleep upstairs, Irene decides to explore other options with Jean. The rest of the film aspires to be a sexually frank version of Ernst Lubitsch's sly 1932 con farce "Trouble in Paradise." But Salvadori confines his sophistication so·phis·ti·cate v. so·phis·ti·cat·ed, so·phis·ti·cat·ing, so·phis·ti·cates v.tr. 1. To cause to become less natural, especially to make less naive and more worldly. 2. to discussions of tableware and linen thread counts. As we watch Irene and Jean prostitute themselves with their weathered, moneyed marks, the vibe isn't playful or mischievous but tedious and vulgar. The accommodations might be four-star, but the movie is strictly Motel 6. Glenn Whipp, (818) 713-3672 glenn.whipp(at)dailynews.com PRICELESS - One star >PG-13: sex, nudity. >Starring: Audrey Tautou, Gad Elmaleh. >Director: Pierre Salvadori. >Running time: 1 hr. 46 min. >Playing: Laemmle's Town Center 5 in Encino; Laemmle's Playhouse 7 in Pasadena; The Landmark in West Los Angeles
>In a nutshell: French fluff attempts to use sun-dappled locales to disguise unseemly premise. In French with English subtitles. |
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