With a title like "The Girl from Monaco", a picture of a bodacious babe on the cover, and a description about a neurotic lawyer defending a gangster's mother charged with the murder of a gigolo, I figured this would be a crazy comedy... something between "Legally Blonde" and "My Cousin Vinny" but in French. Boy was I wrong.

Certain filmgoers react negatively when they don't get what they expect. Me, I don't care as long as it's good. And this movie is definitely good. It begins with enough light-hearted comedy to draw you in at the opening scene. Other good laughs are peppered throughout the first half. But you soon realize that it's all a clever candy-coating, masking a dark, winding story beneath. In that respect, I'd compare it to "Art School Confidential" (2006) or "Jeux d'enfants" (2003) or even "Good Morning Vietnam" (1987) which begin as comedies but soon trick us down a different path.

If you go into this film with zero expectations, or better yet, expecting to be led to an unknown destination, I can't imagine you not liking this film. The acting is top notch, creating believable characters who are instantly likable despite their personality quirks. Even the Girl, who is basically a slut of the highest magnitude, comes across as cute, charming and breezy. It's hard not to see elements of the legendary Brigitte Bardot in her unapologetic sexuality.

And that's what this movie is really about: expression vs repression, openness vs modesty, freedom vs self-control. And we see the crazy results of people attempting to bridge between the two worlds. This movie is every bit as compelling as the Bardot films that first explored these sexually-charged themes almost 50 years ago. We see that they're still topical today.

A quick note about content... Even though this is a very sexual story, it's not too explicit, and I think there's only 1 brief nude scene (the girl topless in bed). Most of the steamy stuff is implied through dialogue.

Watch this back-to-back with the Bardot classics "And God Created Woman", "Night Heaven Fell", "Love is My Profession", and so on. Maybe you'll agree it's been a while since a director has been able to capture that same spirit. This movie is so much more than a comedy. Soooo much more.

In most of his films, Fabrice Luchini plays very ordinary looking little guys--nice but far from a lady-killer. Here, he plays pretty much the same sort of nice, safe guy...and inexplicably, a gorgeous, young free-spirited lady seems to want him! What gives?!

When the film begins, Bertrand (Luchini) has been hired to defend a rich lady in a murder case in Monaco. She apparently killed her gigolo boyfriend...a man with mob ties! Bertrand seems like a good choice--he's a well respected lawyer and his image is squeaky clean. However, because of the mob involvement, his client orders a bodyguard, Christophe (Roschdy Zem) to stick to Bertrand and protect him...just in case. While Bertrand isn't comfortable with this at first, he comes to like the very laconic Christophe.

Early on his time in Monaco, Bertrand meets Audrey (Louise Bourgoin) at the local news station. She is a VERY chipper and full of life...and oddly seems very interested in Bertrand. In fact, she soon begins to throw herself at him...and you wonder why. Perhaps she's turned on by how successful he is....perhaps she's an evil assassin...perhaps she's just had a head injury! All you know is that she not only wants to be with him...she WANTS him and is more than willing to put out for him! And, at the same time, Christophe, who knows Audrey, is NOT happy about all this and advises Bertrand to keep his distance from her. So what is going to come of all this? See this movie.

Generally, I would say that you should watch ANY Luchini film. He is a delightful actor and has a habit of picking really interesting projects and he's one of my favorite Frecnh actors. Even in his less than great films, he is never boring and plays the sort of character the viewer can't help but like. This is THE reason I watched this movie in the first place...Luchini.

So is this a really good Luchini film? No. His acting is great and I enjoyed the film BUT the ending is a real downer. Worth seeing, yes....but the ending really left me frustrated.

Alas, my Summary isn't going to work completely in either French or English: The French pronounce Ann Fontaine's surname Fontenay which means they're unlikely to get the Trevi word-play but on the other hand coin is French for corner so a by-lingual person will twig that I'm referring to the three corners Fontaine brings together here, not so much doctor, lawyer, Indian chief as lawyer, weather girl and bodyguard. Billy Wilder has a lot to answer for on several counts but not least for his masterpiece (or one of them) The Apartment which is a laugh-out-loud comedy for the first hour then switches effortlessly to drama and because it was Wilder he made it look so easy that everybody and his uncle Max thinks he can do it too. Ann Fontaine isn't everybody; with twelve complete films under her belt and a thirteenth in the Cutting Rooms she's a formidable talent, one of an elite group of female French directors who have given me personally hours of pleasure - I'm referring to, in any order you like, Marion Vernoux, Nicole Garcia, Valerie Lemercier, Toni Marshall, Danielle Thompson, Agnes Jaoui, Noemie Chomsky, Diane Kurys et al. If this isn't quite top-drawer Fontaine it'll do until another top-drawer Fontaine comes along. Fabrice Luchini, that most quirky of French actors both on stage and screen (and rumored to be engaged to Fontaine, who may herself still be married or may not have been married as the case may be - and you think THIS film is ambiguous) is at the head of proceedings as a top avocat shipped to Monaco to defend the mother of a gangster (Stephane Audran wasted) on a charge of murdering a gigolo; because of the delicate nature of the case the gangster supplies Luchini with a bodyguard who may or may not develop a sexual attraction to Luchini; the third element is a local weather girl with a moral compass that makes Sadie Thompson look like Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. Inevitably the up-tight lawyer allows himself to be seduced by the bimbo half his age and equally inevitably it ends in tears. Though I enjoyed it, as I have all the Fontaine films I have seen I wouldn't in this case (unlike the others) want to see it again.