Beautiful Lies Review

Despite the best efforts of Audrey Tautou and Nathalie Baye, Pierre Salvadori’s love triangle romp struggles to overcome its core contrivances and chauvinism. Tautou is a hairdresser who fires adoring handyman Sami Bouajila on a whim and comes to regret it when she discovers he is the author of the anonymous billet doux that he sent to her and she passed on to her mother. Baye’s lusty turn brings a feisty response from Tautou, but the humour veers from coarse to coy, with the more farcical moments often feeling as forced as the smalltown caricatures. Bouajila proves more genial, but even his surprise secret can’t rescue this histrionic romcom from its garish vulgarity.