L'arnacoeur (aka The Heartbreaker) is a romantic comedy about Alex Lippi, whose profession involves breaking up couples. He explains that women in relationships come in 3 categories: 1) happy, 2) knowingly unhappy, and 3) unhappy without admitting it. He only deals with the 3rd category. His tool is seduction. He is actually doing them a service by freeing them from their unhappiness, which is underlined by the dozen women shown thanking him after each success. Alex is accompanied by his sister, Mélanie, and her husband, Marc, who provide support by gathering intel and running interference. They conduct their business with honorable rules – relatively speaking.
However, short on money and in debt to a loan shark, Alex and his team is forced to take their most difficult mission yet – to break up a happy couple. The target is a beautiful, successful wine connoisseur, Juliette Van Der Becq. Her fiancé is a rich bloke from England who feeds the needy with food banks he has put together. He's truly prince charming. Armed only with the knowledge that Juliette likes Wham! and Dirty Dancing and had vanished for 1 year during college, Alex sets his plan into motion. The only obstacle – aside from the loan shark's ogre-sized goon and prince charming – is the love he begins to feel for Juliette.
I don't know if it's because everything is in French, or if it's because I watched this on a 13 hour flight washing my face with Johnny Walker, but L'arnacoeur was surprisingly entertaining. It's like watching a semi-skilled group of spies disarming an emotional time bomb. They fumble their way through it and somehow nail the perfect landing. Alex has this arrogant but potent swagger about him. I love how he's able to embody the spirit of any woman's idle man. It's comically unbelievable and reminiscent of sappy love stories. The whole cast and story has a unrealistic wackiness to it. L'arnacoeur a romantic comedy that doesn't take itself seriously and in doing so it delivers a refreshing change from its American counterparts.
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However, short on money and in debt to a loan shark, Alex and his team is forced to take their most difficult mission yet – to break up a happy couple. The target is a beautiful, successful wine connoisseur, Juliette Van Der Becq. Her fiancé is a rich bloke from England who feeds the needy with food banks he has put together. He's truly prince charming. Armed only with the knowledge that Juliette likes Wham! and Dirty Dancing and had vanished for 1 year during college, Alex sets his plan into motion. The only obstacle – aside from the loan shark's ogre-sized goon and prince charming – is the love he begins to feel for Juliette.
I don't know if it's because everything is in French, or if it's because I watched this on a 13 hour flight washing my face with Johnny Walker, but L'arnacoeur was surprisingly entertaining. It's like watching a semi-skilled group of spies disarming an emotional time bomb. They fumble their way through it and somehow nail the perfect landing. Alex has this arrogant but potent swagger about him. I love how he's able to embody the spirit of any woman's idle man. It's comically unbelievable and reminiscent of sappy love stories. The whole cast and story has a unrealistic wackiness to it. L'arnacoeur a romantic comedy that doesn't take itself seriously and in doing so it delivers a refreshing change from its American counterparts.
Bro-Approved More chick flick reviews for men @ RatedChick.com