Heartbreaker

Name: Heartbreaker
Genre: Comedy, Romance
Released: September 10, 2010
Duration: 105 min
Rating: 59
Cast: Julie Ferrier, Romain Duris, Vanessa Paradis

2010

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Mixed or average reviews based on 22 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 17 Ratings

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6.5	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 17 Ratings

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Movie Details & Credits

IFC Films | Release Date: September 10, 2010

Starring: Julie Ferrier, Romain Duris, Vanessa Paradis

Summary: Charming, funny and effortlessly cool, Alex (Duris) is a professional heartbreaker who for a fee can turn any husband, fiancé or boyfriend into an ex. Alex has one ironclad rule: He only breaks up couples where the woman is unhappy. His latest job will put that rule to the test. The target is Juliette, a beautiful heiress who is set toCharming, funny and effortlessly cool, Alex (Duris) is a professional heartbreaker who for a fee can turn any husband, fiancé or boyfriend into an ex. Alex has one ironclad rule: He only breaks up couples where the woman is unhappy. His latest job will put that rule to the test. The target is Juliette, a beautiful heiress who is set to marry the man of her dreams. With ten days until the wedding, Alex has been hired by her father to carry out his most daring seduction yet that risks him being caught by his ruthless personal creditors, angry exes, and the beautiful and independent Juliette herself. But worst of all, will he discover to his own cost that when it comes to love, the perfect plan doesn't exist? This fall no one will be able to resist Heartbreaker. (IFC Films)… Expand

Director: Pascal Chaumeil

Genre(s): Comedy, Romance

Runtime: 105 min

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Critic Reviews

Jordan Mintzer

Combining the glamour of "To Catch a Thief" with the ruckus of a Ben Stiller movie, TV vet Pascal Chaumeil's French Riviera-set intrigue stars Romain Duris. Read full review

Boxoffice Magazine Wade Major

A whipsmart twist on a particular kind of romantic comedy. Read full review

Movieline Stephanie Zacharek

American romantic comedies have become so dismal over the past 20 years that it wouldn't be hard for even the Romanian film industry to show us up. I'm still waiting for the great Romanian romantic comedy (and hey, it could be out there), but for now, France saves the day with Heartbreaker. Read full review

James Berardinelli

Heartbreaker isn't disappointing enough that it will cause pangs of deep regret for anyone who pays to see it in a movie theater, but it will go down more easily as a home viewing option. Read full review

Peter Rainer

Cary Grant, to take the premier example, was a great screwball comic who was, at the same time, intensely romantic. With Grant, funniness and sexiness were twinned. This is an exceedingly difficult combo to bring off, and Duris, though it would be unfair to compare him with Grant, doesn't come close. Read full review

Nathan Rabin

Heartbreaker relies far too heavily on the charm and attractiveness of romantic leads whose chemistry is lukewarm at best to sell a groaning collection of rom-com clichés. Read full review

Mick LaSalle

It turns out to be just as bad as any routine French romantic comedy - illogical, inconsistent and sloppily written, a charmless, tasteless, witless waste of time. Read full review

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User Reviews

Emilee

Dec 8, 2012

Heartbreaker, directed by Pascal Chaumeil, is by far one of the best french romantic comedies i've ever seen. The premise of this movie is that of a handsome con artist, with the help of his

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Carlie

Dec 8, 2012

Pascal Chaumeil's Heartbreaker is a french film that gives you the unexpected twist of a romantic comedy at its finest. It presents the typical man that every woman comes upon in her life, the man that takes women for granted and tries to "sweep her off her feet" by using his typicalPascal Chaumeil's Heartbreaker is a french film that gives you the unexpected twist of a romantic comedy at its finest. It presents the typical man that every woman comes upon in her life, the man that takes women for granted and tries to "sweep her off her feet" by using his typical seductive lines. He comes upon Juliette who doesn't take his crap, and she sees the real Alex, and brings out the vulnerable Alex that never thought he saw himself being vulnerable to true love ever in his life. Juliette is about to marry in her eyes the "perfect wealthy man." but the movie presents the idea that the simple things in life, are the characteristics that make you the most happy, even when you think you have it all. "Having it all" just isn't enough and money cannot buy you happiness. This film isn't just any romantic comedy, it presents an interesting plot that pulls you in with an unexpected twist to keep watching the movie. Juliette's father is the typical intimidating French father who has money and will do anything he can to protect his daughter and make sure she is happy, which means keeping her from marrying her fiance. "Heartbreakers" is a movie that demonstrates the truth about relationships that every woman has been waiting for. For this, you can thank Director Pascal Chaumeil. Pascal Chaumeil started out as an assistant director in 1988, working several times with Luc Besson, in 1996, he is the director of the second team on "The Fifth Element." Chaumeil has directed for recent films, "Living Is Better Than Dying" and "A Perfect Plan" (2012). And is in the process of his upcoming film "A Long Way Down" (2013). He has also worked on many different series, "Lawyers and Associates", "Do Not They Do That" and others. "Heartbreaker" was Chaumeil's first feature film. The movie doesn't really present any french cliche's and that is why it is something new and fresh for movie watchers. Romantic movies typically make it seem so easy for a man and woman to fall in love, but this entertaining, sharp movie, keeps you at your feet watching Alex work to get his love, while he never thought he would need it.… Expand

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MarcDoyle

Sep 11, 2010

I always forget how good the French are at physical comedy. This is an old story, but the lead actor brings great comedy and freshness to it. Vanessa Paradis didn't have to act much, but she plays the straight well and is certainly interesting to watch. The real finds in the movie are theI always forget how good the French are at physical comedy. This is an old story, but the lead actor brings great comedy and freshness to it. Vanessa Paradis didn't have to act much, but she plays the straight well and is certainly interesting to watch. The real finds in the movie are the supporting actors - her randy friend, and his sadistically creative sister and brother-in-law. You'll leave the theater smiling, but it's largely fluff. Keep your expectations low, and it'll work.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

Shiira

Jan 15, 2011

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. It is a rare thing, these days, to find a challenging read. Books, being what they are, an antiquated form of entertainment, most novels, as a result, follow a structure that hews closely to the screenplay: three acts, and almost always, without fail, plot-oriented. More artful than a film novelization, authors of contemporary fiction, both popular and literary, however, write books that seem all too ready-made for adaptation. That's because they know their time is up. The book industry is under siege by indifferent philistines, technology-addled boys and girls, unaware of fiction's existence. Having long been replaced by wireless devices as the accessory of choice for commuters who travel by bus or subway, publishing houses will be less likely to gamble on a narrative that is modernist and character-oriented, or anything deemed not to be reader-friendly. Declining sales in the book marketplace would seem to indicate that people aren't doing any indoor reading either. Meanwhile, the cinema is increasingly becoming an English-only proposition, because frankly, foreign tongues are bad for business. Nobody wants to "read" a movie. Those Blackberry and I-Phone users need the movies too, but they're not lining up for the latest Claire Denis flick, that's for sure. Look at the Amy Adams character in "The Fighter", who b*tches about having to apprehend the subtitled "Belle Epoque", and that was the early-nineties, before all those toys came into fruition. Things are worse now, much worse. American moviegoers, with their short-attention spans and isolationist attitudes, champion American films, but strangely enough, so does the rest of the world, a global phenomena which even includes France, of all places, the country that built the "art house". And yet, despite their reputation for high art, ten out of the top fifteen highest grossing films of 2010, came from the United States, with "Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows: Part One" holding down the top position. Rounding out the top ten, fending off Disney's "Rapunzel" for the final slot was "L'arnacoeur", a romantic comedy that should have Francois Truffaut rolling in his grave. Far from being a film snob(like Jean-Luc Goddard, who, in all likelihood, to this day, has never seen his compatriot in "Close Encounters of the Third Kind"), the Cahiers du cinema writer, had he lived, would have probably stopped short of selling-out, and actually making a Steven Spielberg-like spectacle, and other films of its ilk. But make no mistake about it, Truffaut loved the American cinema. In a masterwork such as "The Bride Wore Black", his deep reverence for "The Master of Suspense" is more than self-evident. Instead of slavish imitation, however, the filmmaker put his own personal stamp on Hitchc*ck's filmic language, and after the translation, the finished product would be unmistakably his, unmistakably French. Facsimile didn't interest him, nor did it interest any of his New Wave colleagues, all dead now, save for Goddard and Agnes Varda. Above all else, Truffaut was a cineaste, and in his capacity as a critic, he would have easily diagnosed the calculation behind "L'arnacoeur", whose rom-com tropes are so Hollywood friendly, the film seems to have been made to be remade. Although the characters are speaking in their own native tongues, the words seem completely foreign to the diegesis. All of the ambiguity and unpredictability that gives French cinema its name, good or bad, is missing from "L'arnacoeur", and in its place, the filmmaker replaces the country's cinematic hallmarks with the same stultifying banalities that have become synonymous with the contemporary American rom-com. No prizes for those who guess correctly if the break-up artist will inevitably fall for the target of his ongoing job. Juliette, a flower magnate(engaged to a man daddy hates), loves Roquefort cheese, but it might as well be Kraft American SIngles, given the woman's adoration for Wham!(technically British) and the film "Dirty Dancing". We know what such proclivities entail, and a shudder runs through our bodies at the potentiality of the flower magnate's dual passions being floridly expressed. Although we're spared a hearty sing-a-long(Juliette quietly mouths the words to "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go"), on the dancing front, however, the break-up artist pulls out all the stops, doing a step-perfect rendition of Patrick Swayze's swaggering dancing style in the 1987 Emile Ardolino film, which inspires Juliette to break-out her best "Baby" moves. Nobody puts French cinema in the corner, but "L'arnacouer" does, through its flagrant regurgitation of the Hollywood ending, where simultaneous epiphanies by both parties at separate venues(an airport, and a wedding), lead them onto the same road, running, and into each other's arms. In a proper French film, somebody would get hit by a truck. We're supposed to be the smiling idiots, not them.… Expand

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

olympians

Oct 18, 2010

Take away Monaco (where the film was largely set), constant sunshine, 5 start hotels, Vanessa Paradis strutting about in top to toe designer gear at all times and the pervading "money is no object" aspirational aspect of the film and what are you left with? Not a lot I'm afraid. TheTake away Monaco (where the film was largely set), constant sunshine, 5 start hotels, Vanessa Paradis strutting about in top to toe designer gear at all times and the pervading "money is no object" aspirational aspect of the film and what are you left with? Not a lot I'm afraid. The supporting cast does a good job but Romain Duris does not work for me as a leading man. Too short and too skinny maybe? I've loved him in other films but this one left me rather lukewarm.… Expand

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nutterjr

Oct 24, 2011

Not all European cinema is worth a watch, especially the ones that copy the Hollywood box-office recipies. If it wasn't for a rather charming Romain Duris, this film would be a disaster.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

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