My Worst Nightmare

Just when you thought the modern rom-com was dead, veteran French writer-director Anne Fontaine resuscitates the genre with help from two of the most expressive and versatile actors in contemporary French film: Isabelle Huppert and Benoit Poelvoorde. Huppert's character Agathe, an acid-tongued, prudish Parisian art dealer unhappily married to a wealthy stick-in-the-mud publisher, manages to cross paths with her exact opposite, Patrick (the perpetually animated Poelvoorde). Patrick is a louse of a father whose adolescent son is best friends with Agathe's son at school. He's also a boozing working-class womanizer who strikes up a friendship with her husband, and before you know it, Patrick's hired to do a remodeling job on their stodgy apartment. Chaos naturally ensues, with Agathe and Patrick at odds every step of the way. But when Agathe's husband meets a younger woman and subsequently leaves, Agathe changes in completely unexpected ways. My Worst Nightmare is a bawdy, riotous, risqué comedy that also features bittersweet and tender romantic moments. Both a scathingly funny twist on the classic mismatched couple comedy trope and a sophisticated comedy of manners (with a dash of class consciousness to boot), this is highly recommended. (M. Sandlin)