Review by John Delia
Looking for a very cool romantic comedy for a night out, then look no further. Gemma Bovery opens today in select theaters and has a very good plot that will keep you intrigued, romantically tangled and completely entertained. At first I thought Madame Bovary the novel by Gustave Flaubert, a steamy sexually charged book that titillates and sets minds in forbidden dreams. Actually as the film opens there’s a direct relationship to the winsome story, but only in the mind of a man who in the twilight of his life has romantic thoughts and an imagination as impetuous as Flaubert.
It all begins with Martin Joubert (Fabrice Luchini) a baker in a small comfy French town outside Rouen who has returned to Normany to continue his deceased father’s bakery. His most favorite novels are those that exude romance ending with dying love and lives them out in his head as he kneads the dough for his impeccable bread. He works the shop with his wife Valerie (Isabelle Candelier) who greets customers and keeps an eye on her daydreaming husband.
On this very day we find him fantasizing on his favorite character Madame Bovary who enjoyed passionate love affairs and succumbed to an accidental poisoning. As the late afternoon would have it, while doing some chores, new residents move into the vacant house across the road. He walks his dog Gus to get a view of his new neighbors and sure enough he meets Gemma Bovery (Gemma Arterton) who has moved in with her husband Charlie (Jason Flemyng). The lithesome woman with the similar last name immediately registers in Martin’s fantasizing mind as Madame Bovary.
So begins a story of forbidden love, lustful cravings and secret rendezvous illuminated from a diary that ends up in the hands of Martin. Director and screenwriter Anne Fontaine does a terrific job of bringing the dark comedy to the screen. Making her characters likable, fresh and sensual, the film takes on an incessantly delightful aura of enchantment and forbidden desires.
She uses Martin to tell the story embellishing truth with his own fantasies and Luchini plays him well. Thinking he has a chance at forbidden love he pursues Gemma tripping over his own imaginings at time. Luchini owns the role giving Martin a new outlook on life from his humdrum daily routine. He kneads his dough lustfully as if it were a woman in his strong hands rapt with satisfying her desires. Quite amusing at times, we see him trying to manipulate situations to attract the comely Madame with near success, in his mind anyway.
But although Luchini is the catalyst for everything Gemma Bovery, it’s the breath taking beauty of Gemma Arterton that lures audiences into the imagination of it all. Her delivery and expressions are perfect for the once rebuked Gemma who marries Charlie on the rebound. She’s happy with the man, but coming from the big city of London, increasingly bored with her life in the small town. Arterton works magic as we follow the whims of this affection starved woman attracting those men who are awestruck by her delightful personality and charms. Arterton wowed as Gretel in Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters and intrigued as Strawberry Fields in Quantum of Solace, but here she’s down right sumptuous and enchanting.
Gemma Bovery has been rated R by the MPAA for sexuality/nudity and language. The film spools out in mainly the French language with some English accompanied by English subtitles.
FINAL ANALYSIS: A romantic mature comedy with an accent on sensual’ity. (B)
Additional Film Information:
Cast: Fabrice Luchini, Gemma Arterton, Jason Flemyng, Isabelle Candelier, Niels Schneider, Mel Raido, Elsa Zylberstein, Pip Torrens, Kacey Mottet-Klein, Edith Scob, Pascale Arbillot, Philippe Uchan, Marie-Benedicte Roy, Christian Sinniger, Pierre Alloggia, Patrice Le Mehaute, Gaspard Beaucarne, Marianne Viville
Directed and Screenplay by: Anne Fontaine
Genre: Romantic Comedy, Drama, Foreign (French w/English subtitles
MPAA Rating: R for sexuality/nudity and language
Running Time: 1 hr. 39 min
Release Date: June 12, 2015
Distributed by: Music Box Films