En Plein Coeur review

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Middle-aged lawyer Michel (Lanvin) appears to have it all: he's married to a famous sculptress (Bouquet), he has a thriving legal career, and he lives in a sumptuous mansion. And then a penniless but beautiful teenager named Cecile (The Beach's Ledoyen) pitches up at his office, seeking to be represented in an armed robbery prosecution. Michel takes the case, with life-changing consequences for both him and Cecile...

Beneath the glossy, car-ad veneer there's a gaping lack of psychological credibility here, while the wooden performances fail to convey the emotional turmoil the characters are presumably meant to be experiencing. Ledoyen spends most of the film in states of undress, saddled with some dreadful lines. French cinema is rarely this flimsy.

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