"French Twist" is about a cheating husband has to deal with the fact that his neglected wife has found another love interest... a woman. That he cheats on his wife on a regular basis is not the issue, to him. His ego and pride being stepped on by the whole situation is the problem and it makes for some very funny material.

The three main characters (Josiane Balasko, Victoria Abril and Alain Chabat) work extremely well together. Just bouncing lines off one another and interacting beautifully. Just when it looks like all will work out another element is added to stir the fire.

The film was written and directed by Balasko who also stars as the "other" woman who's looking for love and destroying a home. Or is she? Chabat is amazingly funny as the philandering husband and Abril is also very good and quite beautiful as the passionate, yet somewhat confused wife.

Check it out for yourself. Don't let the subtitles hold you back. It doesn't take away from the film at all. Get ready to laugh.

Ridiculous Lesbian Fantasy (Rating: 3.00)
Review : Anyone who has ever read lesbian erotica will recognize some of the plot elements of this silly movie. The naive, ultrafemme, housewife, who slaves all day for a selfish, uncaring, philadering husband, meets a wonderful, butch lesbian and within a short while (a couple of hours?)is seduced by her charms. Rescuing "straight" women from unhappy marriages is a huge theme of lesbian erotica. It's a rather unbelievable premise, and this movie makes it seem even more implausible. I just did not believe that the homely, overweight, and repulsive Marijo could be irresistable to the gorgeous Loli. It wasn't until I discovered that the director had cast herself in the role of Marijo did I understand- if you were in the position to decide who gets to do love scenes with Victoria Abril would you take one for yourself? Obviously, Josiane Balasko is a smart woman. (It sort of reminded me of a "Seinfield" episode- you know the ones in which ugly, dorky Jerry and ugly, dorky George somehow always manage to get dates with impossibly beautiful women. It's that implausible!)

Overall, this move had some laughs, but its premise was absurd and by the end of the film I detested everyone of these characters. They were just so selfish! As Helen Lovejoy says: "Will someone please think of the children!"

An OK but not a Very Good Film (Rating: 3.00)
Review : This is not a very good film. It is supposed to be a comedy. Unfortunately, Josiane Balasko, so wonderful as Gerard Depardieu's forbidden love interest in Bertrand Blier's "Too Beautiful for You" (1990), shows here that she can be a heavy-handed director, a comedy screenwriter without wit, and a comic actress who simply isn't funny.

This is a movie with no good lines, unforgivable in a comedy. There are, however, two bright lights in the film, the only actors who do manage to be funny: Ticky Holgado, a supporting actor who plays the business partner and best friend of the humorless male lead (Alain Chabat), and the ever delightful Victoria Abril, one of the two female stars of the love triangle (the other being the humorless Ms. Balasko), whose physical displays almost save the film.

Victoria Abril is a wonderful and underrated actress, still breathtakingly gorgeous at age 36 (recognizable to most viewers from Pedro Almodovar's "Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!"), who displays her physical gifts with wit and abandon. For some people her presence will be enough to justify purchasing this DVD. This writer, in fact, despite his negativity toward the film, purchased the DVD while owning the VHS tape, but he confesses unashamedly to having been secretly in love with Ms. Abril for almost two decades, even with her clothes on.

This film enjoyed an enormous box-office success in France, and has pleased most American movie critics. It is not without entertainment value. But it could have been so much more.

Don't expect too much, you'll enjoy it more then (Rating: 3.00)
Review : Sometimes I think that telling you too much of the plot of the movie on the back of the box, and having those reviews on the box telling you how great the movie is can be a mistake. Maybe I had too much expectation when I sat down to watch this movie because although it was somewhat enjoyable, I just never really got all that involved in it, or took too much away from it. Really good movies, and really bad movies both leave a lasting impression in my mind, and I like to talk about them afterwards, this one, when it was done, that was it, back into its box and back to the video store to be quietly forgotten.

I've heard them say that love is blind, and from some things I have seen, that is sometimes true, but I'm not blind. That might be one of the problems I had with this movie, I just wasn't convinced that these two women could actually fall in love. There seemed to be no real chemistry between them, and I really couldn't even buy into the butch character, smoking her smelly cigars, and dressing like a man. How many stereotypes did we really need in this movie anyway?

Overacting, and overreacting are two of the biggest flaws that I found in the movie. When the unfaithful husband realizes that his wife and this butch woman who has invaded his house have something going on between them, his overreaction and overacting are hard to bear. I watched in a kind of numb disinterest as he raved back and forth, like he was mister innocence himself, and still the scene extended on and on, long past the time when it should have quietly slipped away. And then it continues on the next day as he rants some more, as he and his friend go on a bike ride, and he unconvincingly breaks down some more at a little restaurant or coffee shop. Who writes this stuff?

That was the worst, although there was another scene that was almost as bad, when two of the lesbians other friends happen to show up, and the wife flips out almost as much as her husband did earlier. This scene was painful to watch, and I couldn't imagine who would have really stayed around for the uncomfortable scenes that happen during the dinner, and after it. It seemed so unbelievable, and the wifes reaction so out in left field that I was cringing through the scene, though I believe it was supposed to be dramatically funny.

The ending left me hanging a little bit, not seeming to be a big enough payoff for the hour and a half I had invested into the movie. However, I can live with it as long as they don't try to expand on it with a French Twist 2. Let well enough alone.

This movie is at least worth a rental, but no more than that, if only to see Abril, who plays the wife. She is very beautiful, and except for the one unbelievable scene where she flips out, seems to be the best of the actors or actresses who starred in this movie. If she could pick better movies, she would really be something to see, so check it out, at least for her.

Some kind of politically-correct morality play? (Rating: 2.00)
Review : OK, so the guy's a jerk, but in the end he accepts his wife's female lover as part of the family --- sounds like a new Disney movie to me!

Actually, Josiane Balasko did a decent job directing this film, but casting herself as the truck-driving lesbian was a bit too much! Yes, it was realistic --- but therein lies the problem! Visually, I'd have much rather seen a hot-looking, sexy, dark-haired woman seducing the beautiful Victoria Abril. I mean, to put it a different way: beautiful bodies a more enjoyable film do make!

Even a cinnamon twist is not this good! (Rating: 4.00)
Review : I had no idea what I was getting into when I got this movie. As a huge foreign film buff there I was taking a gander at this movie and realizing the script was totally hilarious.

Basically it focuses on this married couple who have two children, a French family. And of course, the man, not wanting to offend all of the women he's ever met, sleeps with them all. (Side note, it is actually a compliment when men make passes in France, it is offensive to not do it, it means the female is not worth trying with; interesting huh?)

Anyway, hubby cheats, the devoted wife finds that a dyke passerby can fix things, be there for her, and even have dinner.

A steamy romance ensues with the wife and her new woman and the cheating hubby does not take it to well.

You will laugh your ass off in this movie! I don't want to spoil it, but suffice it to say, I bet the script writer has had a very interesting marriage!