“I think you have a problem with women,” Jeanne
That’s exactly how I felt about the filmmakers while watching this. Everyone in this purported rom-com, especially the female characters, are depicted as grotesques without brains and charm, and devoid of wit. There have been some bad films released this year. HOLLYWOO joins the worrying nadir of craftsmanship that includes: THIS MEANS WAR, BATTLESHIP and MEN IN BLACK 3. This is so inept it makes BRIDE WARS look like THERE WILL BE BLOOD. Twelve minutes in the alarm bells were ringing. I still had another 90 minutes to go!
That’s exactly how I felt about the filmmakers while watching this. Everyone in this purported rom-com, especially the female characters, are depicted as grotesques without brains and charm, and devoid of wit. There have been some bad films released this year. HOLLYWOO joins the worrying nadir of craftsmanship that includes: THIS MEANS WAR, BATTLESHIP and MEN IN BLACK 3. This is so inept it makes BRIDE WARS look like THERE WILL BE BLOOD. Twelve minutes in the alarm bells were ringing. I still had another 90 minutes to go!
Jeanne (Florence Foresti) is a profoundly obnoxious actress, who dubs into French the lead role in a vapid US television import. Self-obsessed, imbecilic and insensitive, she blunders through other people’s lives like an irksome tornado. When the American actress, Jennifer Marshall (Nikki Deloach), quits the show due to a nervous breakdown, Jeanne’s only income dries up. Lacking any kind of logic/realism, Jeanne heads to Hollywood to try and get Jennifer back to work. The majority of the film takes place in Los Angeles, where Jeanne blunders about ignorantly and unfunnily. Somehow most Americans seem to understand French, and she sporadically understands English. There she encounters Farres, the normally hugely engaging Jamel Debbouze (AMELIE, DAYS OF GLORY, ANGEL-A), who is doing various jobs to make a living. Farres decides to help her, spying a potential payday.
Added into the mix of inanity, are worrying cultural portrayals. Jeanne calls a guy in a turban “Slumdog Millionaire”; Farres calls a Native American “Pocahontas”; and when she crashes into the car of four African American men, an accidentally turned on iPod blurting out French rap placates/distracts them. What were the filmmakers thinking?!!
I will not be able to get 102 minutes of my life back.