Review: I must admit, if I knew that this movie was full of subtitles, I wouldn't have bothered with it but once it gets going, I really didn't know what direction the storyline was going to take. At first, it's a simple concept, about a loving couple, Gemma Bovery (Gemma Arterton) and Charlie Bovery (Jason Flemyng), who move to France and become friends with the local bread maker and his wife, Martin Joubert (Fabrice Luchini) and Valerie (Isabelle Candelier), who live in the same community as the loving couple. Martin takes a bit of a shine to the flirtatious Gemma, which he keeps to himself but when she starts an affair a young boy who is studying for his exams, Herve De Bressigny (Niels Schneider), her relationship with Charlie takes a turn for the worse. Martin is a lover of the writer Gustave Flaubert, and he can see Gemma's life is taking the same direction as Gustave's book, "Gemma Bovery", which just happens to be the same name as there new neighbours, so he tries to divert her from her downfall. After planning to leave her husband with her new boyfriend, Gemma's life takes a turn for the worse when Herve is false to leave the village, by his mother. The strain also becomes to much for Charlie, who decides to leave his wife for a while, and when an old flame turns up at Gemma's doorstep, Patrick (Mel Raido), a dramatic chain of events lead to a dramatic ending, which is worth watching. I really wasn't expecting the storyline to turn out the way it did but the rest of the movie was a bit slow. I liked the fact that the quiet Martin, who was completely in the background throughout the movie, knew exactly what was going to happen but apart from that, it really didn't pick up until the end. Gemma Arterton seems to act the same in all of her movies, but she was suited for this role. It did surprise me how easily she started an affair with the local boy, without feeling guilty towards her husband but that was the mysterious thing about there life's taking the same direction as the books. Anyway, it's not the type of movie that I would usually watch, so I didn't have high expectations but I did enjoy the ending after reading subtitles for an hour and a half. Average!Round-Up: For a girl who came into the movie world in 2007 in St. Trinians, Gemma Arterton, 30, has starred in some big movies, like RocknRolla, Quantum of Solace, Prince of Persia, Clash of the Titans, Runner Runner and Hansel & Gretel, so her 8 year career has been pretty impressive to date. Her French accent in this movie was believable along with her flirtatious ways, which ended up getting her in trouble but she has to be careful that she doesn't become a victim of typecasting. Anyway, this movie was written and directed by Anne Fontaine, 56, who has primarily directed movies for a French market, so I haven't really heard of them. I liked the twist in this movie but it came a bit too late for my liking. Budget: €9.7million Worldwide Gross: £4.7millionI recommend this movie to people who are into their drama/romance/comedies starring Gemma Arterton, Jason Flemyng, Fabrice Luchini, Isabelle Candelier and Mel Raido. 4/10

Negative: Forced to sit through five trailer adverts for other movies. Positives: Note the spelling difference in the name. Lots of British type humor bordering between a little shocking and funny. So what happens when a British couple end up living in the France of Flaubert and by coincidence they share many of the same attributes as well as a similarity in name to that famous novel? Add a next-door baker as a storyteller who is also infatuated with the mystique of women from those period novels. "Gemma Bovery" offers a contemporary interpretation that I found more interesting than other recent adaptations of the story especially with regards to manipulating men. "Wants everything from love and is always disappointed." When life doesn't match her fantasy one wonders if she would have changed or would she have eventually recidivated? Great endings as her men lead to her humorously ironic downfall and finally the introduction of a famously storied Russian woman.Surprising song (an odd fit) shows up in the movie and in the credits - "Jimmy" with no identifiable credit. Anyway, from a mongrel American/European blues/folk/rock team, "Moriarty".

GEMMA BOVERY is essentially a paean to the hotness of Gemma Arteton and to classic French literature. The plot sees the ordered village life of a former publisher, who semi-retired to became a baker in Normandy due to his love of Flaubert's "Madame Bovery" which is set there, turned upside down by the arrival of an English couple. She is beautiful and bored and her surname is Bovery. Soon her life begins to mirror the novel, as she seeks out affairs to deal with her ennui. Worried by this - because he knows the book ends with her suicide - the baker/publisher begins to try and discreetly guide her, with mixed results. Only the French could make something as insubstantial as this - and then make it work. Although billed as a comedy-drama, it's neither very funny nor entirely dramatically successful, but it sustains itself with a low- key middle class charm. Village life is gorgeously portrayed and most importantly the film succeeds in making you care about what is essentially a silly woman making bad decisions; like many French films it's all about the gloriousness of women, which Arteton more than lives up to. A small charmer.

Another astounding comedy drama from France. Fabrice Luchini at his very best. His peak. I nevertheless don't like this actor, he annoys me at a scale you can't even imagine. His manners, his way of speaking is unbearable to me, but I repeat, he is a great actor. In this film, at last, I like him much. But what I just said is my own private opinion. This feature is totally awesome for the acting and screen writing. This movie hesitates between drama and comedy too. A pure delightful moment.Exquisite.You won't waste your time in this film.