Movie review: The Girl from Monaco

“The Girl from Monaco” is anything but the typical French drama. It is filled with daring humor, stunningly bright scenery and the stereotypes of brooding, angsty Parisians are absent.

The lonely Madame Lassalle has committed a murder. A young Russian male she encountered on her first visit to a place where cougars can find willing prey has been stabbed 17 times. It’s up to Bertrand Beauvois to defend her in the upcoming trial. Due to the high-profile nature of the case, Bertrand is provided with a bodyguard, Christophe Abadi. The film mainly follows Christophe and Bertrand’s awkward interactions as they cooperate to build the defense for Madame Lassalle.

 While this sounds a little dull, it isn’t — the trial is merely a side plot. Bertrand’s sexual awakening and his ventures into the nightclubs of Monaco add an entire other dimension to the film.

The dialogues between bodyguard and client are witty and honest. “Did you have sex with her?” Bertrand asks. Christrophe responds, “A little.” Weather girl Audrey, clad in a bikini — think French Paris Hilton with the color sense of Elle Woods — also brings the humor.

For example, she asks Bertrand if she needs the permission of a parrot to broadcast a trick it performs.

She is the refreshing antithesis of  the typical refined French female characters. She suffers from a chronic lack of clothing and brains, and when it comes to sexual encounters, she could easily give prostitutes a run for their money.

Fabrice Luchini excels as the intelligent Bertrand, and succeeds in portraying the wonderment and joy that goes along with discovering Audrey and her world of unconcerned partying and sex. Roschdy Zem rightly earned a César nomination for his role as the ever professional Christophe. Louise Bourgoin (Audrey) completes the leading trio, in her debut. Since she is a CanalPlus weather girl in real life, she at least had some experience to rely upon.

“The Girl from Monaco” successfully translates the principality’s joie-de-vivre to the screen, and forms a welcome change from the more depressing French films that have recently crossed the Atlantic.