What friends are for

by RICHARD JONES

ONCE you get over the initial shock that the main character is told at a Paris dinner party in his honour he has no real friends Patrice Leconte's My Best Friend unravels as a touching comedy.

It's true that antique dealer Francois (Daniel Auteuil) doesn't have any close friends, rather business colleagues. And he treats his girlfriend extremely shabbily.

Nevertheless once he cottons on to the fact he's not well-liked he makes a bet with his dealership partner Catherine (Julie Gayet). The bet is that Francois will be able to produce a best friend by the end of the month.

After some unsuccessful bonding attempts it gradually dawns on Francois that his semi-regular taxi driver Bruno (Dany Boon) looms as the main candidate to be his "best friend". Bruno is a trivia-obsessed, talkative man who still lives just a few doors from his parents' home. Like Francois, he's quite a solitary person.

Bruno is enlisted to teach Francois how to be constantly "sociable, smiling and sincere", yet as each day passes and the day of reckoning draws closer the antique dealer is still a long way away from scoring a real best friend.

28 June 2007

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