ElMaruecan82
I'm boycotting this film. I've seen the trailer, a few scenes and on the surface, the movie looks nothing but a delightful little romantic comedy, starring two French matinee idols Virginie Elfira and Jean Dujardin. But for the first time, after 1238 reviews and trailers, I review a movie I didn't see, because I despise its take on the very points it pretends to make. In other words, I'm boycotting it.Here's a quote from Verne Troyer who played Mini-Me in the "Austin Powers" movie: "I think when average-size people start taking roles that were meant for dwarfs, that's a little frustrating because there aren't that many roles out there for height-challenged actors."The last part of the quote is the key, there aren't many roles out there for height-challenged actors. Many years ago, you couldn't have little actors playing big roles unless your name was Danny De Vito or Bob Hoskins and they were hardly leading roles in the romantic definition of the word, same story in France, little guys could only play sidekicks or funny comic reliefs as the obligatory whipping boys of the bigger guys.But Laurent Tirard can't get away with that excuse, in 2016, one of the greatest TV stars was Peter Dinklage and he proved that you could play a badass dude even below the 5ft limit. Tirard wanted to make a statement about love being blind and even a beautiful tall blonde girl like Virginie Elfira could fall in love with a man of 4ft and half. I can only cheer to that, finally a movie tackling the issue of height.Yes, height is a serious issue for men, standing at 5ft7, I have endured some rejections because of my height and I could eavesdrop many girls' conversations always converging toward the same depiction of the ideal guy: tall and handsome (notice how tall always comes before handsome). I have always wished height would be handled as a serious issue in a movie, and here came the perfect film for that, and the intentions of the script are certainly laudable, but then... I saw the trailer and realized they took the most bankable actor to play the little man. Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!Cinema is a tough racket, many are called and a few are chosen. In the case of little men, a few are even called. Seriously, how many young men under 5ft would dream about any ungrateful role in a big production if that meant a ticket to glory, and here comes a movie where it's the leading role. Finally, height has a point, where a little man is given the opportunity to shine and deliver a heart-warming message about love and tolerance. Surely, there must have been a handsome young man with a deficit in centimeters, how about having the guts to give one of these guys a chance... for the first time?But not only Tirard went for the easy choice; picking the "it" actor in France but he also insulted the matter of height by turning it into a publicity stunt à la "Honey, I shrunk Dujardin", it's not about going to see the love story between a small man and a tall girl, but to have fun watching Dujardin being "downsized". Tirard turned the serious matter of height into a goddamn movie gimmick, which adds the insult to injury. Tirard would rather complicate the whole filmmaking process by having to shot with a green screen rather than casting a short man and letting it roll. I guess the box office success is worth the risk of awkward and obviously staged interactions and of course, some will say that the casting made sense in terms of financial issues, that spectators are most likely to come to watch a Dujardin movie rather than an unknown man. Well, if Tirard couldn't care less about preventing a small man from a role tailor-made for him, he could have casted many other famous short guys in French showbiz and there are some, with notable talent. But the real problem is that the film is supposed to deliver a message which is that size doesn't matter.Except that Tirard, by shrinking a tall guy instead of genuinely casting a small one, proved that size indeed mattered. It might be motivated by economical and aesthetical factors, but you wouldn't believe how many times, heightism is also due to these very causes, so Tirard doesn't taste the very soup he's selling to us, and I don't want any of it.The film is a gutless production that doesn't believe in its own premise, and twice an insult to short people, because it pretends to care about them.
CineMuseFilms
You'll search far and wide to find a positive review of this film but you have found one here. Like every romantic farce, Up For Love (2016) is a comedy based on situational humour rather than dialogue or action. It's a genre that shows people revealing themselves by how they react to the unexpected and this one is funny and sad and loaded with charm.The plot line is simple: a beautiful lawyer loses her phone and a caller offers to return it if she will dine with him. Freshly divorced Diane (Virginie Efira) is trying to move on and is vulnerable to the smooth-talking Alexandre (Jean Dujardin). When they first meet she is stunned to find that the high-profile architect is 4 foot 6 inches tall. It is a hilarious scene of studied avoidance and shifting glances. But they hit it off and start dating, and each situation into which Diane introduces Alexandre is a farcical study of how people react to his diminutive stature. Throughout it all, Alexandre endures the stares and jibes with good-humoured acceptance despite the callous insensitivity of people towards those who are different.There is an unmistakable feeling of guilt in laughing at how Alexandre copes with everyday moments in his life, like needing to jump up into a normal size chair and see his dangling feet not reach the floor. But that is the whole point: how would we react in the situation? Dujardin is a pin-up star of French cinema and he plays here with irrepressible warmth and forbearance despite his short straw in life. Efira is his perfect match and plays middle-class embarrassment to perfection. Critics have complained that the digital effects to down-size Dujardin are clumsy. It is true that if you look for it, you can notice some between-scene differences in scale and perspective that slightly alters his size in relation to the frame. Just ignore it. The whole of cinema involves suspension of disbelief and this story has more than enough going for it to be spoilt by minor hiccups with experimental technology.Love stories between mismatched souls have always been the lifeblood of romantic comedy, so in one sense Up For Love is just another take on an ancient theme. If your glass is always half empty, then this film is a flawed cliché. For others, it is a delightful romance that doubles as a serious essay on dealing with difference. It is heart-warming and awkward, original and familiar, all at the same time.
Karl Self
This is the classic French romcom with a twist. A dashing architect and a big girl lawyer fall in love with each other. Who wouldn't, they've got everything going for them, so much so that it's sheer willpower that keeps them from falling heels over head in love with themselves. And every man should take a few pointers from Alexandre how to properly woo a woman. The only hitch is that this French lover stands barely 1,40 m tall. Although this predicament is obvious from the start, and I felt a bit nauseous about how truly wonderful Alexandre is (he's great at anything), the movie still provides a lot of momentum and keeps the story going. It's especially fun to watch how they make the 1,82 m tall actor Jean Dujardin appear to be only 1,36 m tall by a number of old school tricks (his counterpart Diane (Virginie Efira) standing on a box, or Jean Dujardin kneeling) and CGI (green screen).
