Review of Love Me If You Dare (2003) by Kenneth L — 13 May 2010

A bizarre but nevertheless charming romantic story. It's the story of two completely crazy people in love with each other who spend most of their lives playing an insane daring game with each other.

The opening scenes depicting the characters' childhoods are shot in a colorful, playful storybook style that reminded me of early Tim Burton and the TV show Pushing Daisies. Those scenes worked really well, and really got me to care about the characters, before I realized they were crazy.

The two child actors in those opening scenes are remarkably good. Then the movie flashes forward to when the characters are adults, and settles into a more realistic visual style while maintaining the insane characters.

Guillaume Canet, who directed the excellent French thriller Tell No One, is pretty likable as Julien, and the cute Marion Cotillard is fascinating as Sophie. Yann Samuell's direction is extremely lively, wooshing the camera all about and slipping into some interesting animated dream sequences every now and then.

As much as I like this movie, I have heard of numerous people hating it, so I feel I should warn you: you might well hate this movie, despite all its good attributes. The characters really are insane, and if you don't like them (as you would be justified in doing), then you would not really have anyone to root for in the movie.

I guess the movie is more objectively satisfying in terms of its look than its story. But hey, if you're the sort who's inclined to watch French romantic comedies anyway, you might as well put this one on your to-see list.