GAMES: GameSpot | GameFAQs | SportsGamer MUSIC: Last.fm | MP3.com MOVIES: Metacritic | Movietome TV: TV.com
Home | About Metacritic | About Metascores | What's New | Wireless Versions | Discussion Forums | Advertising Inquiries | Contact Us | RSS
Metacritic.com: We Deal With Criticism
     Help
> Switch to Advanced Search  
Film Video/DVD Music Games TV

Film

Upcoming Release Calendar
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
How Metascores Are Calculated
Discuss Film In Our Forums

 

Wide Releases

sort by name sort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

 

Limited Releases

sort by name sort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

 



Printer-Friendly Version Email This Page Discuss In Our Forums

My Best Friend
IFC Films

My Best Friend reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 65 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
7.0 out of 10
based on 27 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 8 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: PG-13 for some strong language

Starring Daniel Auteuil, Dany Boon, Julie Gayet, Julie Durand, and Henri Garcin

Francois is a middled-aged antique dealer. He has a stylish apartment and fabulous life, but at a dinner with a group he considers his dearest acquaintances, he is blindsided by the revelation that none of them actually likes him. He's arrogant, self-centered and harsh, and they don't believe he knows the meaning of friendship. His business partner Catherine makes him a bet: if he can produce his best friend, she will let him keep the massive Greek vase he acquired that afternoon on the company tab. If not, it's hers. (IFC Films)


GENRE(S): Comedy  
WRITTEN BY: Olivier Dazat (idea)
Patrice Leconte
Jérôme Tonnerre
 
DIRECTED BY: Patrice Leconte  
RELEASE DATE: Theatrical: July 13, 2007 
RUNNING TIME: 94 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: France 
LANGUAGE(S): French 

Alternative Title: Mon Meilleur Ami

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

90
Film Threat James Wegg
More a celebration of movement and music than a parable for our over-communicative, friend-lite, acquaintance-rich society.
Read Full Review
88
TV Guide Ken Fox
Unexpectedly touching -- odd-couple buddy comedy.
Read Full Review
83
Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
An unlikely comedy charmer.
Read Full Review
75
Premiere Glenn Kenny
A droll, poignant comedy enlivened by two terrific performances.
Read Full Review
75
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
The film unfolds easily, with affection for the man no one likes, and at 95 minutes it doesn't overstay its welcome.
Read Full Review
75
Boston Globe Wesley Morris
Leconte's writing is tight and nimble, and while the tests of the duo's friendship are facile, under the circumstances, they make sense. The bond between Francois and Bruno approximates the real thing; Leconte seems to be arguing that you can grow a flower from fake soil.
Read Full Review
75
Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
My Best Friend, not surprisingly, is about what it means to have friends - and not to have them, to be alone. It's about connection, about trust and vulnerability. That Leconte's little film is a mild-mannered farce, makes the heartache funny, but really, this is serious stuff.
Read Full Review
75
Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy
Tries less to dazzle you than reel you in with competence and restraint.
Read Full Review
75
San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
Along the way, My Best Friend offers insights into the emotional and psychological components of both friendliness and friendship. They're not synonymous, though both have value.
Read Full Review
75
Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow
The movie is full of holes - it lacks the precision and verve of a Francis Veber farce like "The Dinner Game" - but the two actors brew up a sane kind of comedy from their fractious rapport.
Read Full Review
70
The New York Times A.O. Scott
A comforting, sentimental tale of a kind that would be insufferably maudlin if made in Hollywood and unbearably affectless if it showed up at Sundance. Somehow it’s easier to take in French.
Read Full Review
70
Washington Post Stephen Hunter
Leconte is always a deliriously clever director; his "Ridicule" and his "The Girl on the Bridge" stand out as vivid films on subjects no one in America would even consider. Possibly he's trying too hard here to be liked, just like Francois. But as long as he's merciless, he's great fun.
Read Full Review
70
Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
Too serious to be an out-and-out comedy, too funny not to be one, My Best Friend is a lot easier to enjoy than to classify.
Read Full Review
70
Variety Robert Koehler
Well-turned adult comedy.
Read Full Review
70
Village Voice Ella Taylor
Light, airy, and sweet, Patrice Leconte's latest comedy swings his favorite premise--fruitful encounters between opposites--away from romance and into the wistful hunger for friendship in a careerist world.
Read Full Review
70
Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir
Terrifically acted, reassuringly formulaic, and moderately amusing.
Read Full Review
67
Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
Patrice Leconte's new film, My Best Friend, is probably his lightest and sweetest to date. Fans of his serious historical dramas ("Ridicule") or raucous farces ("Les Bronzes") may be disappointed, but others should find it a reasonably enjoyable feel-good comedy.
Read Full Review
63
Chicago Tribune Sid Smith
For all its silliness and negligibility--a finale involving the Parisian "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" is one of its sillier, more negligible elements--My Best Friend is an amusing reinvention of "The Odd Couple."
Read Full Review
63
New York Daily News Jack Mathews
Mildly entertaining trifle.
Read Full Review
63
New York Post Lou Lumenick
Formulaic but entertaining, My Best Friend climaxes with a lengthy, surprisingly heartfelt sequence set on the French version of "Who Wants To Be a Millionaire."
Read Full Review
63
Miami Herald Marta Barber
Although Leconte allows for a certain warmth to run through the film, he thankfully stays away from sentimentality. Therein lays the charm.
Read Full Review
60
New York Magazine David Edelstein
The prolific Patrice Leconte takes a break from mythic, life-and-death scenarios with My Best Friend, a sitcom that threatens to take a rockier emotional path before swerving back into the comfy zone. It’s better when it’s threatening, but Leconte knows his audience.
Read Full Review
60
The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt
Not a bad film and veteran star Daniel Auteuil makes any film he inhabits an interesting place to visit. Perversely, its tissue-thin substance may even make the comedy more commercial in North America than such films of his as "Monsieur Hire" and "Ridicule."
Read Full Review
58
Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer
Patrice Leconte has directed excellent serious films such as "Monsieur Hire" and "Man on the Train," but when it comes to humor he loses his bearings. His latest attempt at seriocomedy, My Best Friend, is a premise in search of a film.
Read Full Review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Stephen Cole
The film's broad attempts at humour are all mouldy bits from Hollywood films.
Read Full Review
50
Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
By the time director Patrice Leconte arrives at his predictable climax and conventional moral, this lethargic French comedy may not have any friends either.
Read Full Review
30
Austin Chronicle Josh Rosenblatt
If sex, gangsters, and killing Nazis are three of the most enlivening topics in the movies, then let us count friendship as one of the most tiresome, right up there with grooming horses and sharing for sheer thrills.
Read Full Review

What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 7.0 (out of 10) based on 8 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

tj gave it a3:
The acting is fine. It seems fine for a while, but ends up being about as bad as an American made for tv movie. Very poor screenplay.

Marc K. gave it a7:
Let's not have parade or anything for this one, but it is sweet and entertaining. Barely rates a "7" in my book, but deserves it just the same.

Jay W gave it a7:
A nice diversion that takes an overly circuitous but usually amusing route to a predictable conclusion. Not as tidy as the better French farces, but until American cinema comes up with something to match we'll settle for this!

VALERIE W. gave it a9:
Sweet and funny film about friendship. Only the French seem to be able to get a film like this right.

Discuss this movie in our forums

Return to top of page
Home | FILM | DVD/VIDEO | MUSIC | GAMES | TV | Forums | About Metacritic metacritic.com

Popular on CBS sites: MLB | Spore | iPhone 3G | Paris Hilton | Antivirus Software | GPS | Recipes | Shwayze | NFL

About CBS Interactive | Jobs | Advertise

© 2008 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use