Happily Ever After

Product Description Though to all appearances happily married parents, Vincent and Gabrielle (Attal and Gainsbourg) both harbor secret doubts about their monogamy. Despairing of the cynicism of his hen-pecked married co-worker George (Alain Chabat), and envious of the joie de vivre of his swinging sing friend Fred (Alain Cohen), Vincent weighs the risks involved in both keeping himself satisfied and his marriage intact. Sensitive but independent Gabrielle, in turn, feels helpless over her partner's increasing evasiveness and is drawn to her own burgeoning fantasy life. But when she makes a surprising and powerful connection with a handsome stranger in a record store ("Yes...that's Johnny Depp!" - Paul Sherman, Boston Herald), Gabrielle stops speculating about Vincent's loyalty and begins to consider an affair of her own. Amazon.com Call it The Mind of the Married French Man. In his second film with Charlotte Gainsbourg ( 21 Grams), Yvan Attal ( Bon Voyage) looks at monogamy through the prism of three middle-aged Parisians who work at the same luxury auto dealership. Georges (Alain Chabat) is unhappily married to the combative Nathalie (Emmanuelle Seigner), the single Fred (Alain Cohen) is seeing several different lovelies, and Vincent (writer/director Attal) has a seemingly idyllic relationship with realtor Gabrielle (Gainsbourg, Attal's companion)--complete with precocious urchin. In reality, they're in a rut. So while Fred swears his is a lonely life, his frustrated friends aren't convinced. One day in a record store, Gabrielle locks eyes with an attractive stranger (Johnny Depp in a mostly wordless, if effective cameo) while listening to Radiohead's "Creep," with its somber "I don't belong here" refrain. Things go no further, although Gainsbourg's expressive face clearly registers a longing for more. Vincent, on the other hand, surrenders to temptation. As in his feature debut, My Wife is an Actress, in which Attal imagined Gainsbourg having an affair with suave co-star Terence Stamp, his Vincent is the weaker of the two, although Gabrielle is a less unwitting victim this time. Happily Ever After, their fifth film as co-stars, treads a fine line between comedy and pathos before giving way to a fantasy concerning Depp. Or was it all in Gabrielle's head? Attal leaves it up to the viewer to decide. --Kathleen C. Fennessy