In a span of thirty years, Francis Veber's movies, in the same vein than Billy Wilder's work, have always been consistently good and intelligent, only inspiring some cringe-worthy American remakes. "The Valet" was actually worse than any potential Americanized version, and the opening scene sent its tone of lame predictability.Gad El Maleh and Dany Boon ride classy expansive cars and make a few snobbish comments as if they tried to impress each other. Later, the camera pans at the back of their shirts where we 'discover' they are parking valets. Anyone familiar with the trailer or the basics of humor could have seen this gag coming a mile away. It wasn't a bad one actually but it highlights the film's main problem: many promising things on the paper but a failure at the execution, starting with the plot.Yes, a rich man caught with his mistress by a paparazzi and forced to pretend that the lover was actually the 'other guy' on the cover, was a juicy premise, a typical Veberian screwball comedy full of malicious intertwining maneuvers and the fetish character François Pignon, previously played by Pierre Richard, Jacques Villeret and Daniel Auteuil. But this time, Auteuil is the 'bad guy': Levasseur, the businessman who owes his fortune to his wife Christine. Kristin Scott Thomas plays (once again) her rich icy woman, with such a frigid authority it almost excuses Levasseur's affair.And Veber's camera is so enamored with the beautiful, tall and young mistress Elena that it never elevates her above her sole, defining status: the trophy girl, Levasseur's first and then Pignon. It gets worse because of Taglioni's performance, she's good actually but there's too much self-awareness about her physical assets, she's so in-control of the situation, that the scheme orchestrated by Levasseur and his cunning lawyer (Richard Berry) backfires from the start, especially since Christine is determined to find the truth. Both engage their best detectives to watch the lovers and wait for the 'faux pas' (although with diverging motives).In a better movie, Pignon could have cheerfully welcomed the opportunity but the script insists on his mediocrity and gentleness as if both were sides of the same coin. Here, he's a loser who can't even convince his childhood friend (Virginie Ledoyen) to marry him, you got to wonder what made him so sure she would say yes. He's a nice guy and a loser even by 'Pignon' standards, Pierre Richard and Jacques Villeret played Pignons with colorful personalities, even Auteuil in "The Closet" wasn't a decent simpleton, but Pignon, as played by Gad, is so flatly gentle and faithful (to the woman who rejected him) that it confined to 'asexual' contrivance. In other words, he was boring.It's like making Pignon a decent fellow was a priority over spicing up the plot a little, Elena is nothing but a trophy girl. "She'll call you back", she says about his girlfriend, and she's right. Pignon's situation reminded me of the times where I met a beautiful cousin in the street and pretended (later) to my drooling friends she was an old acquaintance. Pignon's aura is elevated by his company and feminine jealousy does the rest. In this movie, women are driven by the shallowest motives and men are two-dimensional plotters or imbeciles. But labels are still prevalent and the 'hero' must triumph while the bad guy must get his comeuppance.Levasseur starts as a troubled man trying to save his marriage and fortune, he spends the whole second act teased by his wife and worrying about the seemingly sensual interactions between Elena and Pignon, in a tense state that works like a punishment already, but for some reason, he's turned into a pathetic last-minute villain at the end of the film. He knows his wife framed him, his mistress manipulated him yet he blames everything on Pignon. And Pignon gets the girl he's always loved because she realized how 'interesting' he was. Superficiality runs in this film, it practically gallops, and don't even get me started on the cocky ringtones Don Juan.From the very director who signed such gems as "The Dinner Game" or the recent "Shut Up", here's a movie whose characters are only props to highlight the shallowness of our time when they're not pawns… there's no redeemable character in that sad mess. I could feel the director slipping and I'm not surprised this was his last film before a remake (that failed). There's something that just rings false all through the film, and that includes the obsession with cell phones as if the old-school director wanted to modernize his movies. That might explain the casting of Gad as Pignon.Pignon is a lovable outcast, but they tried too hard with Gad, he's got the handsomeness of a romantic leading man, and Gad belongs to the breed of comedians with a rather limited range. As Pignon, his sweetness was also wrapped in two facial expressions: crisped mouth with sad or puzzled eyes that either scream "I'm innocent!" or "What have I done?" in every frame. Where's the goofiness? Where's the genuine likability? Well, I guess it was somewhat present in the comic relief role, Dany Boon who played his buddy, he would have made a better Pignon… in my opinion.The whole film is just a succession of scenes victims of a bad editing, like build-ups for gags that never happen, and when they do, they fall flat, except for a clever nod to "The Dinner Game", Veber's masterpiece. "The Valet" still met with moderate success, benefiting from Veber's reputation and the aura of all the leading stars, but the film never holds up to its premise.And don't get me started on the ending, Veber used to end his movies with an icing on the cake, here, the cake was literally thrown to our faces, or was it to point out that this whole mess was only a "travesty" of comedy?

At a time when French cinema is at, IMHO, its lowest ebb, with not a single great auteur in sight, I had come to rely on Francis Veber to provide excellence in comedy if of only a not very profound type. After Three Fugitives (both versions) and Le Dîner des Cons (to name just two) his films seemed to be heading into Blake Edwards territory.But, oh my word!, what a catastrophe is this grotesque. The central character drifts through a series of 'adventures' involving an unpleasant millionaire (Daniel Auteuil) who is cheating on his wife (the fabulous Kristin Scott Thomas) with a model. The whole thing is flat as a pancake, probably due to the casting of Gad Elmaleh - French cinema's most over-rated actor. This numb-skull drifts through promising scenes but doesn't give what is needed to bring them alive.This is all the more troubling as, given he is playing the same character (or at least the character with the same name) as the central character in Le Dîner des Cons, François Pignon, One imagines what the magnificent Jacques Villeret could have done in the same rôle, had he not died just before the film went into production.

For centuries the French have had the market on light, elegant, stylish, fluffy and tasty comedy, both in the theater and on film. Unfortunately THE VALET (LA DOUBLURE) doesn't rise to those standards. Though written by Francis Veber, who gave us the 'La Cage Aux Folles' series and 'La Placard', seems to understand the genre as well as anyone, the script for this much-used story is bland and lacks the sparkle and inventiveness of Veber's successes.The tale is one of marital infidelity: a wealthy man Pierre (Daniel Auteuil) is married to elegant and intelligent Christine (Kristin Scott Thomas) and having an affair with top model Elena (Alice Taglioni) for two years. Elena is demanding Pierre divorce his wife or she will leave him and Pierre fears the financial repercussions of divorce. Enter a simpleton valet François Pignon (Gad Elmaleh) who is hopelessly in love with bookstore owner Émilie (Virginie Ledoyen), the daughter of his father's strange physician who is more concentrated on salvaging her business than on paying attention to François's romantic overtures. Accidentally François walks past Pierre and Elena on the street, is captured by the tabloids, and when Christine sees the picture the infidelity is questioned: Pierre seeks his lawyer's advice and the tow plot to have Elena live with François to foil Christine's suspicions. Of course the loser François and the gold digger Elena learn from their roles and the story grinds to a rather silly ending.The cast is excellent but just doesn't ignite sparks on the screen. We are left with characters for whom we have little sympathy, and where is comedy if we cannot find at least one player to support? It is a pleasure to see the beautiful Kristin Scott Thomas toss off a French role with such aplomb, but the talents of the others rarely rise above the mediocre - and that is amazing considering the quality of the cast. A disappointing film. Grady Harp

Francis Veber has probably seen better days as a filmmaker- he directed the Dinner Game, much appreciated by those who've seen it, and he wrote the original La Cage Aux Foux script- but it's never a bummer to see him pour out his contrived romantic comedies. It's the kind of movie where there is not a whole lot to really praise to the heavens as being truly sharp and original wit and style with the characters and plot, but at the same time I can't think of anything that is necessarily horrible either. Like a breezy enough sitcom with pleasant enough cast members, the Valet makes its presence known early on enough (following the opening titles, which are quite impressive), and it moves along pretty quickly. Maybe too quick, possibly, as it could have more of an impact with further developed characters. The one who gets the most real investment of full dimension is the wealthy adulterous husband, played by Daniel Auteil, who previously played Francois Pignon in another Veber movie, only this time played by the average shmo-like Gad Elmaleh.It would be a little pointless going through the big hoops in describing the plot as it is stemming from a fairly obvious, if clever-obvious, premise (the Village Voice review is basically a whole description of the review, in much more amusing respect than I could muster). But it should be noted that all of the little twists that occur without there being a whole lot to connect with the characters aside from schadenfreude with the rich guy (and his wife instigating it, played by Kristin Scott Thomas in surprising 100% French), because the ones who are the everyday folk are kept a little too simply: girl needs money for her father, but doesn't want to get involved with the man who loves her so. We're told they're kindergarten friends, but there is very little else to go on as to how Francois's connection to her could be so strong, aside for plot convenience. It's like one of those goofy and simple cooked-up scenarios, with devious and rational-minded characters in equal measure, that could pop up in a less savvy programmer that pops up on weekday mornings on Turner Classic Movies.Which is, in an off-handed way, a slight compliment I hope. It's about as light as comedy can get, with the roughest touches of absurdity being the doctor father being treated by his own patients, a woman who's head is caught on fire while her waiter is taken by the sight of the supermodel and valet, and the very last scene, which has a comeuppance that is cheesy, but very funny, and a surprise considering the lack of transvestites in the film. I liked The Valet, but it's nothing to get worked up about to leave the house and rush to the theater to see.