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Daniel Auteuil, Julie Gayet, Dany Boon, Julie Durand. Written by Patrice Leconte, Jerome Tonnerre. Directed by Patrice Leconte. 94 min.

FILM SYNOPSIS: François is a middle-aged antique dealer. He has a stylish apartment and a fabulous life, but at a dinner with a group he considers his dearest acquaintances, he is blindsided by the revelation that none of them actually likes him. He’s arrogant, self-centered and harsh, and they don’t believe he knows the meaning of friendship. His business partner Catherine makes him a bet: if he can produce his best friend, she will let him keep the massive Greek vase he acquired that afternoon on the company tab. If not, it’s hers. Having accepted the wager, François naively tears through his address book, trying to shoehorn an increasingly unlikely series of contacts into the all-important role. Moving through Paris, he keeps encountering a trivia-spouting, big-hearted cabbie named Bruno. Bruno’s chatty, lowbrow ways grate against François’s designer temperament, but he covets the other man’s easy way with people. He convinces Bruno to teach him how to make friends and sets about learning the “three S’s” – being sociable, smiling and sincere – though they don’t come easy. Ultimately, François victory will depend on Bruno's naiveté in playing along, but what's the cost of cheating at friendship?

PREVIEW REVIEW: The lead has been so caught up with self and a goal of possessing things that he has never attempted to learn how to develop friendships. By film’s end however, he, like George Bailey in It’s a Wonderful Life, discovers that “…no man is a failure who has friends.” I had a nice time with this good-natured fable. It’s an interesting foreign film, one with subtitles, but unfortunately, it contains some PG-13 content, which, had it not been there, no one would have missed it. Still, the moral (true riches are found in friendships) is pleasant, even if today’s mores dominate (premarital sex, the gay lifestyle and stealing are accepted), the performances are engaging and the script is thoughtful.

Distributor: IFC Films