Beautiful Lies, sure – but not terribly convincing. This latest offering from director Pierre Salvadori and co-writer Benoît Griffin stars Audrey Tatou as the hapless but well-meaning salon owner Emilie, who is too distracted to cut her clients’ hair without incident, let alone notice that new hire Jean (Sami Bouajila) is hopelessly in love with her. No, she’s too busy trying to halt her mother Maddy’s descent from ‘reserved eccentric’ into ‘disconcerting cat lady’. Maddy (Nathalie Baye), for her part, hasn’t been doing so well since her husband made off with a younger woman – a quickie romance that’s now going on four years. But when the unwitting Jean writes Emilie an anonymous declaration of love, Emilie sees in the letter a salve for Maddy’s pain. Cue 105 minutes of plot turns that are at once too predictable and too improbable. Beautiful Lies (De Vrais Mensonges) isn’t going to give you much of a mental workout, but Tatou’s Emilie is likeable enough, and there are a few laughs to be had from this Gallic rom com.
