Two female directors to make this movie! Women (Nicole Garcia,Anne Fontaine,Agnès Varda, Jacqueline Audry ,their pioneer) have often produced memorable works.But,like their male counterparts ,the contemporary ones have a hopeless tendency to succumb to the current craze, the "feel good" flick.
The heroine gave up her law studies and she opened an agency where anybody can "rent " her (this is the title of the movie):but do not get me wrong :she's not an escort girl ,let alone a luxury hooker:she plays the part her clients want her to: for a man who claims he's got a daughter ,she will become the beloved girl he's never had ;for a guy whose parents are ashamed he is gay ,she will be the would be girlfriend ...and so on .....
This is a comedy (but not very funny ,there are lots of missed opportunities ) which sometimes verge on drama (the funeral, the heroine who realizes she's been playing roles all along her life,well before her "job" :so who's the real me, my love?" ;she will have to strip bare (in every sense of the expression) to come to terms with her past.
All remains superficial ,the real problems are skimmed over ;the implausibilities abound (the gay's brother is none other than the heroine's former highschool flame);the parents are ridiculed ,particularly the dad and his horrible paintings ; an unpleasant scene would like us to laugh at an old man 's lapses of memory (probably Allzeimer's desease) ,sheer bad taste.Visions (or imaginary daydreaming) are introduced in the first scenes,but it's so self-conscious and so gauche that the directors quickly ditch this hackneyed trick.