How Much Do You Love Me?

What a disappointment. I was expecting much more from a film coming from Bertrand Blier, who has made Tenue de Soir in the 80s, and a bunch of reasonable films since. Having Depardieu and the mind-blowing Monica Belucci in the film was not certainly enough.

All the film turns around Monica Belucci. Sure, such a beauty makes man die for and can make them pay millions or kill for, the issue is that the characters in this film seem to be willing to do exactly this, and this is the whole story, not much more. One of the reasons of failure is I believe the cast. Bernard Campan in the role of the gray clerk who wins the lottery and intents to buy a beautiful Italian whore for the rest of his life is lacking charisma, and there is no chemistry between him and Monica Belucci. In other words, I can certainly understand him, but I cannot understand her, and the whole intended love story is less than credible.

All around dance a bunch of characters who fail to be coherent enough, or funny, or to be able to collect any sympathy. Even Gerard Depardieu who is an actor who seemed not to be able to do wrong looks like mis-cast. Actually all characters seem under-developed, and if it were not for Monica Belucci's beauty and talent (almost completely wasted here) the film would have sunk into complete failure. It gets a few stars however, and all belong to Belucci.