Arguably a loopy spin on Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing with a farcical touch of Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, this story set in the French countryside during the Napoleonic wars finds an army captain named Neuville (Jean Dujardin) called off to battle in Austria moments after proposing marriage to Pauline (Noémie Merlant), an impressionable daughter of equally susceptible aristocratic parents. Although Neuville promises to write Pauline every day, nothing ever arrives in the post. Wasting away from melancholy, Pauline’s poor health alarms Elisabeth (Mélanie Laurent), Pauline’s quieter, more keen-witted and skeptical sister. Elisabeth resolves to rally Pauline by writing fake letters from Neuville, imaginative correspondence that makes him sound like a fearless warrior who also managed to make a fortune when not facing thousands of enemy troops by himself. The ruse works, but after three years Pauline marries another, and Neuville returns—and he is nothing at all like the gallant figure who left. But ingratiating himself once again with Pauline’s family, Neuville assumes the role of the larger-than-life figure of Elisabeth’s invented missives, after which the pair enter a war of wits in an entertaining battle of the sexes. Director Laurent Tirard’s handsome period film benefits from masterfully comic performances by Dujardin and Laurent. Recommended. (T. Keogh)
Return of the Hero
Icarus, 90 min., in French w/English subtitles, not rated, DVD: $26.99 Volume 34, Issue 5
Return of the Hero
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