I know, I know, what am I doing reviewing a cute little French film on LethalDeath.com? Surprisingly enough, this film actually fits into the little niche we’ve carved away here. If you take the time to watch it, I think you’ll see what I mean. At first glance, “He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not” is a bittersweet romance about a woman who falls in love with a man. Unfortunately the man happens to be married, but they are madly in love and the woman must find a way to woo away the love of her life. As her relationship with the man starts to fall apart, as does her very life, she ends up despondent and alone. But what we quickly learn is that points of view are entirely subjective, and a person’s perspective of the truth may be far removed from reality. I was urged a few months ago to see “He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not”, by my good friend and writer Gary Murray. He reviewed the film for TheCityWeb.com, and told me that so far it was amongst the best movies of 2003.

I wondered how in the world this little foreign romantic film could possibly be so good. I mean, what do the French know about romance really? I never had the chance to catch it in the theatre, but when the DVD happened across my desk, I had to see what he was so excited about.

Though he and I disagree from time to time about certain types of films, this was one time I succumbed to the lure of L’amour (and I don’t mean Louis). Turns out “He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not” is right up my alley as far as films go. Sure it starts out all sweet and nice, almost a little too saccharine for my taste. But as the film and story developed, I found my self drawn in by the intricacies of the tale.

As a matter of fact, what ended up catching my attention was the way the story is told. Much like the title suggests (once you see the film), it is a kind of ‘he said, she said’ affair, offering up two totally different perspectives of the same events. It has twists and turns that should be obvious during the first part of the film, but it’s not until later that everything seems to come together. I actually found myself slapping my forehead and going, “Why didn’t I see that coming?”

I don’t want to give away too much about the film, mostly because of the twists, but I will tell you that what starts out as sweet and adorable little romantic fable, becomes much, much darker before the closing credits.

Directed by: Laetitia Clombani
Starring: Audrey Tautou, Samuel Le Bihan, Isabelle Carré, Clément Sibony, Sophie Guillermin, Eric Savin
Specifications: Widescreen (1.85:1), French 5.1 Dolby Digital, English Subtitles
Studio: Sony / Columbia Tristar
Release Date: 8/12/2003
Region 1
MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Thematic Elements and some Obsessive Behavior)
Website

We'll give He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not a B.