? The latest farce from writer-director Francis Veber (La Cage Aux Folles, The Closet) finds a meek car parker paired unexpectedly with a supermodel who’s the unhappy mistress of a rich businessman (Daniel Auteuil) trying to deceive his wife (Kristin Scott Thomas).
+ As with Veber’s other work, the twisty plot moves along zippily, the cast is mostly solid (The English Patient’s Kristin Scott Thomas speaks French!), and the mood stays light. The smart female characters are the strongest. Veber’s often-hilarious films have frequently been turned into inferior Hollywood remakes, but the best of those, The Birdcage, gives an idea of his style for those who’ve missed the originals.
- While consistently amusing, The Valet produces only a few genuine belly laughs. The story is decent, but left me expecting more than the terse ending. Veber has given his nebbish character the same name, François Pignon, as several different ones in his earlier films, but this Pignon (the character and the actor, Gad Elmaleh) is not one of his most memorable.
= **3/4 This is a slightly better than average comedy, but rent Veber’s The Closet or The Dinner Game for some real laughs.
[reviewed 5/18/07]
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0449851/
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