Movies tend to slavishly follow the edict that characters must be likable for an audience to sit still for them. “Priceless” flies cheerfully in the face of this wisdom, which is one reason it’s so enjoyable.
A pair of morally challenged people meet at a ritzy hotel on the Riviera. Jean, played by Gad Elmaleh from last year’s “The Valet,” works as a bellhop and waiter in the place, and late one night he’s tending bar by himself.
Or he would be, if he hadn’t fallen asleep in a comfortable chair. Hey, the joint is empty. Dressed in his work tuxedo, he is mistaken for a wealthy tourist by Irene (Audrey Tatou), a dolled-up gold digger. They get drunk together, go to bed, and there begins a tale of repeat opportunism.
When Irene finds out the truth, she must teach Jean a lesson before going back to her flirtatious ways with genuinely rich men. Jean picks up more than she might have expected.
I don’t want to give away the twists of this story, wonderfully sustained by writer-director Pierre Salvadori, whose previous movie was the oddball “Apres Vous.” These unique characters go through their world without apology, and in a truly weird way they’re kind of meant for each other.
Their world is a dizzy, stylish place that only exists in movies — that’s what makes it click. If Salvadori studied any model, it must have been the great Hollywood director Ernst Lubitsch, whose classic “Trouble in Paradise” (a masterpiece about competing jewel thieves who fall in love) this film recalls.
Along with the nice eye candy of the Cote d’Azur, the movie has a sleek cast. Vernon Dobtcheff and Marie-Christine Adam are appropriately knowing as older partners for our young leads.
Audrey Tatou has done her best to get away from “Amelie” over the years, and her calculating schemer here is another step in that direction. She also happens to be irresistible, or maybe it’s just the low-cut gowns talking.
Gad Elmaleh is a popular, poker-faced French comedian, with just enough mystery about him to keep you wondering why he’s putting up with everything. This is a strange romance indeed, but it works on its own sardonic terms.
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