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My Best Friend
Stars: Daniel Auteuil, Dany Boon, Julie Gayet, Julie Durand, Jacques Mathou, Marie Pillet, and Jacques Spiesser
Director: Patrice Leconte
Scriptwriters: Patrice Leconte and Jerome Tonnerre
French Language-subtitled
IFC Films
Rating: PG 13
Running Length: 92 minutes

Daniel Auteuil has such an expressive face. It speaks volumes without him uttering a word. In My Best Friend, Auteuil meets his match in Dany Boon, who also speaks volumes with his face and eyes. Scriptwriter/director Patrice Leconte (“Monsieur Hire”) and writer Jerome Tonnerre have fashioned a story about a man who discovers he has no true friends. In fact, his “friends” tell this to him. They simply do business with him and that is all. If he were to die, no one would come to his funeral. The idea of friendship becomes, “Who can you phone at 3 a.m.?” Good question. When his business associates, even his partner, tell him of their personal lives, he is clueless. He doesn’t know how to make friends, nor did he ever feel the need for friends---not even to his daughter.

In the film, Daniel Auteuil (Francois) is an antique dealer who obsessively buys a valuable vase at auction. His female partner (Julie Gayet) whom he finds out likes women, says the business can’t handle this expense (200,000 Euros). A discussion ensues on friendship and she bets him the vase that he can’t produce “a best friend” in ten days. Francois thinks this is a snap, until he begins to go through his list of business associates (they hate him), former school chums (they hate him) and even his daughter (she plans on leaving home). What Francois doesn’t see is the beginning of a friendship with his taxi driver, Bruno (Dany Boon). Francois won’t drive in Paris traffic and depends on others. Bruno makes friends with everyone and Francois soon wants lessons on how to make friends. This results in a hilarious bit when Francois quietly goes to a book store to try to buy books on making friends. As the date for the bet comes closer, Francois gets desperate. Where can he find a friend? He even tries “Find-A-Friend.” In the meantime, we get a glimpse of Bruno’s life with his parents and how he needs a serious friend, too. It turns out Bruno isn’t always as bold as he seems, is a person who memorizes historical facts and loves television quiz programs. The opposite of Francois.

My Best Friend certainly is a tongue-in-cheek story of friendship. Are people born to make friends while others sit on the sidelines? Or, is the ability to make friends always there, but needs to be cultivated? This film also shows that if you have money, snobbery goes with it, and that money will get you “friends,” but are they really warm-hearted or cold-hearted people? The character of Francois and his ability to spot good and bad antiques doesn’t transfer to people. They are there for his use and that’s all. His daughter finds him cold and wants to go to another country and finish studies there. He doesn’t seem to notice. As a study of friendship, this film is insightful. Making friends with people and animals is shown and can you see yourself, or others, in this sections? It is when Francois engineers something and doesn’t think it through, that his house of cards crashes and it is sink or swim. 

There is humor in My Best Friend, including Francois looking up an old school chum or Bruno and Francois going to a soccer game. Gentle pathos, too, as people pass through Francois’s life and want to make a connection with him, but he doesn’t notice.

Acting is quite good with Dany Boon just about stealing every scene he and Auteuil are in. Daniel Auteuil allows this, because in his own scenes, he is the center. Their body language is telling, as Francois walks as though tightly wound, while Bruno saunters with an easy gait. I found the film left me thinking about friends and friendships, past and present. It is intriguing. The ending of the film seems contrived, though, and rushed as though the cast was working on a stopwatch.  A few more minutes would have helped sort things through for the audience.

Copyright 2007 Marie Asner