Love me, if you dare

Personally, I don't really like romantic movies as they are usually filled with clichés and are oozing so much sweetness that I just get pissed off. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy a romantic comedy from time to time and I occasionally even liked being carried away by a bold and beautiful romantic epic although the romance part usually is a minor inconvenience.

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not a romantic at heart, I like romance but just not the cookie cutter, obligatory pre-packaged kind. And over the years we've seen every possible version of boy meets girl, boy loses girl and eventually (90 minutes later) gets girl again. Situations change, names change, actors rarely change (Meg Ryan, Kate Hudson, Hugh Grant,... usually pop up) and ultimately it all turns to predictable mush, that is why I basically don't like romantic movies as they all tend to be the same.

Now, I may be prejudiced but that doesn't make me a cynic. There are a few romantic comedies that I really love and that I'll probably elaborate on sometime in the future. The movie that renewed my faith in the genre was the utterly inventive and colorful Jeux d'Enfants. I loved the movie so much that I even went to see it twice in the cinema.

Sophie (Academy award winner Marion Cotilliard) and Julien (Guillaume Canet) are best friends. When they were children they invented a peculiar game: whoever had the tin box could dare the other to do anything. The dares were simple but as they grow older the stakes got higher and a lot more dangerous.

Yann Samuell has created a true ocular treat, reminiscent of Le Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain, in which the scenes are simply vibrant, original and fun adding a quirky and contemporary French twist to the tale. Samuell's visual style turns a quite ordinary tale into an adrenaline fueled extravaganza aided by a wonderful cast and some outrageous dares. In the end he proves that you don't have to be sweet to be romantic and I couldn't agree more.