Chic! [DVD]

I don't know why this got so many poor and tepid reviews. It's a film about fashion. It has 'a moral to the story' but don't expect to be moved to tears, it isn't that kind of film. It true that it has one of those unbelievable storylines where an inelegant, sort of ugly duckling is given a once-in-a-lifetime offer and transported into a world of elegance and privilege... Just in this story, Cinderella/Pretty Woman is a rough and scrawny, 50 year old male landscaper. (I think this must be the 3rd film I have seen where Eric Elmosnino plays the very unlikely object of desire for beautiful and/or worldly women, but I suppose it happens in life.)If you liked "The Devil Wears Prada", "Ugly Betty" or "Pretty Woman" you will probably enjoy this film. Although not the same story, similar in the sense of the basic tale of people who are basically good facing being devoured by a beautiful, yet superficial world; each one has to decide whether they will go with the current, swim against it, or take themselves out of the water all together... Fanny Ardant is so cute in this. Marina Hands and Laurent Stocker are also well cast.

Thank god for Fanny Ardant and a couple of other actors!Story rather predictable...

Silly romantic comedy with the pretension to have the fashion world as it background.It doesn't work.Comparisons with "The Devil Wears Prada" are inevitable.

Really good entertaining French movie.... No laugh but all good spirit and a real rom-com frenchie!

Disappointing. Amusing for 10 minutes, then got bored. A really dull version of "The devil wears Prada".

Helene (Marina Hands – 'Tell No-one') works for a Fashion House that of the capricious Alicia Ricosi (Fanny Ardant). Ms Ricosi is putting together her new collection when her lover deserts her – she needs inspiration to work and so has an artistic hissy fit and gives up. Helene is a fixer and so has to find a new muse. Her boss is a quintessential coward and bully and swerves all blame in a master class of deflection leaving Helene to take the rap – hence she is a complete cow to nigh on everyone else.She also has a nice house that she is getting landscaped but decides to fire the gardener just because she feels like being a biatch. Well fate has a way of bringing the most unlikely of souls together and as the sands of time run out for the new collection so does Alicia meet the recently fired gardener and voilà a muse is born. What follows is a story of ups and downs, lies, cover ups and a pretension smörgåsbord – that is actually very funny in places.Director Jérôme Cornuau has made a film that is both original and charming. His main man is not classically good looking either and I very much appreciated that an ordinary man could stir emotions like he does here. The laughs are worth waiting for but there are also other issues examined here, that of career progression over integrity, idol worship, the fickleness of fashion and the complete duplicity that is concomitant with those that move in high places. This is a good ride though and has Gallic warmth underneath the well observed pretension. A bit of a love story, a bit of a fashionista expose and a bit of drama; not a bad effort at all and one I can wholeheartedly recommend.

Such a bore, not even the French accents could save this fashion disaster!

Chic! is a 'tragi-comic' movie: it is quite amusing, mainly due to the exaggerated traits of the somewhat pathetic human characters it depicts. Not the best, but still watchable, if nothing better presents itself.