Review of Little White Lies (2010) by Lau K — 06 Jun 2012

Every year, Max (Francois Cluzet), a successful restaurant owner, and Vero, his eco-friendly wife invites a merry group of friends to their beautiful beach house in Bordeaux to celebrate Antoine's birthday and kick-start the summer vacation. But, this year, before they all leave Paris, their close friend Ludo is hurt in a serious accident, which sets off a dramatic chain of reactions and emotional responses. The eagerly anticipated vacation leads each of the protagonists to raise the little veils that for years they have draped over what bothers and upsets them. Pretenses become increasingly hard to keep up. Until the moment when the truth finally catches up with them all...

"Les Petits Mouchoirs" or "White Little Lies" is a well made, well acted and well dramatized ensemble movie. It is French, I would expect nothing less. France is one of my favourite moviecountries and they truly knows how to handle the craft of moviemaking. As the title says, its about those little white lies we all carry and funnily enough do not really want our closest friends to know about or have problems to communciate them to our friends. The characters in "Les Petits Mouchoirs" are very selfcentered in many ways and not very open to eachother despite the fact that they are supposed to be very close friends. Thus, do they really know eachother? The decision to go on their annual summer vacation when their friend Ludo is in a very bad shape in the hospital, is a moral judgement they make that can be debated. How would you do? How would I do? The movie holds up all the way until the end, were I think it actually becomes a bit over the top. It feels like they really wanted to go out in an emotional bang, that becomes a too loud bang. I do love how it has been shot in certain scenes, for example when the camera follows Ludo as he is driving his vespa. Nice angles and dynamic shots. Marion Cotillard is such a great actress with a strong aura of beauty. Elle est magnifique et belle! Love her. I can recommend this tale of friendship, white lies, despair, love, humour, emotions, sex, anxiety, sadness and joy.