Paris, the city of light and love, plays host to this romantic comedy of unexpected complexity and a pervading humanity, which examines the damage that too much kindness can sometimes cause. Pierre Salvadori directs an outstanding cast, with two-time Cesar winner Daniel Auteuil (THE CLOSET, GIRL ON THE BRIDGE) as Antoine, a maitre d` at an upscale brasserie where he quietly runs the show. His altruism doesn`t end at work, however, and on his way through the park to meet his girlfriend, Antoine encounters a man about to take his own life. Poised at the end of a rope and perched on a suitcase, Louis (Jose Garcia, TROUBLE EVERYDAY, JET SET) is suicidal over the loss of his girlfriend Blanche (Sandrine Kiberlain). Antoine steps in and saves the man`s life, and both will live to regret it, as Antoine is unexpectedly guilty for preventing this tortured man`s demise. Antoine is determined to make his charge happy again, but finding him a place to live, a job, and friendship is not enough to put the life back into Louis, so Antoine seeks out the one woman who could end Louis`s heartache. Things get complicated as an attraction grows between Blanche and Antoine, and Louis comes to see Antoine as his rival.APRES VOUS contains some uproarious slapstick moments, such as a distressed Louis`s disastrous run-in with a waiter mid-flambi, and a dissolute Antoine, drunk on the job and punctuating his sentences with a live lobster he`s holding. But it`s the universal themes of love and friendship that make the film resonate, with Auteuil`s hangdog likability and Garcia`s wide-eyed, perpetually lost look generating a chemistry that drives both the humor and the emotion of the action. Kiberlain rounds out the cast, possessed of an ethereal beauty and playing Blanche with understated, wry sensibility.
