The Girl from Monaco

About ten minutes into THE GIRL FROM MONACO, I knew everything that would happen in this movie.

I was completely wrong.  I love that.

THE GIRL FROM MONACO tells the story of Bertrand Beauvois (veteran character actor Fabrice Luchini), a famed defense attorney who has come from Paris to Monaco for a major trial.  His client hires him a bodyguard (Roschdy Zem) who knows everything about the city and all the people in it, and mostly wants to keep them away from Beauvois.  But Beauvois notices Audrey (Louise Bourgoin), a local weathergirl, and she notices him.  Christophe the Bodyguard (remember, he knows everyone) is not amused.

And why would an unbelievably beautiful young woman go for the rumpled, aging Beauvois?  And in the middle of a trial, no less?  Why is she always carrying that video camera, anyway?  Most vexingly (to Christophe, at least), why would a sensible man like Beauvois allow himself to get so thoroughly, embarrassingly infatuated that he’d forget his position, his duty, himself with just one look into Audrey’s eyes?

Well, whatever you think the answers to those questions are, you may be right.  Or not.  I got them wrong. 

But the fact that this film is smarter than me is only part of its charm.  The rest lies in the relationships between and among the three main characters, relationships that develop in unexpected and delightful ways.  There’s also beautiful Monaco, a protagonist both sophisticated and simple, and a tone that somehow manages to keep things in the realm of light comedy while dealing with situations that develop into anything but.

THE GIRL FROM MONACO took me places I didn’t expect to go and showed me a good time getting there.  I’d see her again.