Hyperventilating update of Jane Austen's Emma sees Audrey Tatou scampering about trying to spice up her mum's lovelife

• Xan Brooks
• guardian.co.uk, Thursday 11 August 2011

1. Beautiful Lies
2. Production year: 2010
3. Country: France
4. Cert (UK): 12A
5. Runtime: 104 mins
6. Directors: Pierre Salvadori
7. Cast: Audrey Tautou, Nathalie Baye, Sami Bouajila, Stephanie Lagarde
8. More on this film

 

Audrey Tautou plays stupid cupid in this excitable comedy, a cut-price, candy-coated update on Jane Austen's Emma that bounces along the marina at Sete with its blood sugar through the roof. Our heroine's self-imposed mission is to spice up the lovelife of her droopy mum (Natalie Baye) and initially it seems to work a treat. But wait: Tautou's ornate schemes are about to come a cropper, and before long everyone is saucer-eyed and hyperventilating, essaying whiplashing double-takes and skipping through town like imbeciles with weak bladders. Only Sami Bouajila, playing the bemused, overeducated handyman-in-the-middle, emerges with his dignity relatively intact.

bemused: otumaniony

bladder: pęcherz

blood sugar: poziom cukru we krwi

bounce: skakać

candy-coated: lukrowany

come a cropper: dać plamę, nawalić

double-take: spóźniona reakcja

droopy: omdlewający

essay: próbować

hyperventilate: oddychać bardzo szybko

imbecile: imbecyl; głupiec

intact: nienaruszony

marina: przystań

ornate: ozdobny, skomplikowany

saucer-eyed: z oczami jak spodki

scamper: skakać  

scheme: intryga

self-imposed: dobrowolnie podjęty

skip: skakać

spice up: ubarwiać

through the roof: na bardzo wysokim poziomie

whiplash: smagać biczem

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