Romantics Anonymous

An anxious pastry school graduate finds her soul mate when she applies for a job with a struggling chocolate manufacturer, where she winds up as a sales representative. During her off-hours, Angélique (Isabelle Carré) attends a support group to combat her fear of social situations, while her employer, Jean-René (Benoît Poelvoord), sees a therapist to deal with his fear of intimacy. Jean-René eventually asks Angélique out, but their anxieties make for an awkward evening: whenever he starts to sweat, Jean-René leaves to change into another shirt, but she thinks she's boring him (the next day he convinces her otherwise, but still doesn't feel they should take things further due to the boss-employee relationship). When Angélique has trouble getting merchants to buy Jean-René's old-fashioned chocolates, she secretly helps his chefs come up with a new line and the samples turn out so well that she and Jean-René premiere them at an off-site chocolate convention, where they wind up sharing the same hotel room. Fortunately, their mutual love of chocolate pries open the doors of communication. While the ways in which the leads' personal and professional aspirations dovetail in Jean-Pierre Améris's Romantics Anonymous offer few surprises, there's still plenty of charm here. A strong optional purchase. (K. Fennessy)