In a recent entry reviewing La Vie En Rose, I commented that "Just because it’s French doesn’t mean it’s good." That biopic was true of this sentiment. However, conversely "Mon Meilleur Ami (My Best Friend)" is an example of a film that is enjoyable precisely because it is French. The basic conceit emerges from a bet between two business partners who own an antique shop: Catherine does not believe that her partner Francois has a best friend. The truth is deeper than that, not only does Francois lack a best mate, but lacks friends at all. He is not only disconnected from Catherine's life and dismissive of those around him, including his girlfriend, as well as those he comes in contact with, but most painfully for him is his inability to connect with his own daughter. The bet brings forth this reality, which he feverously attempts to redress, resorting to desperate artifice involving a trivia whiz cab driver who possesses a certain savoir faire personality that Francois longs to attain. I'm refraining from discussing the plot too much for fear of giving away too many of the small surprises that makes this ultimately enjoyable.
This anodyne film lightheartedly explore notions of friendship, encapsulated in the question "Who can you call at 3 am?." Times reviewer A.O. Scott put it best when he wrote, "My Best Friend” is 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." Having no previous knowledge or awareness of this film, we read Scott's review which was placed on a poster board by the movie theater's entrance. And that statement nails the film directly on the head. While at times dancing dangerously close to the line of cringing cliched triteness, somehow because it's French the story works.
Three stars out of five. Sometimes just because it's French it's good.