As light as meringue and almost as sweet, Heartbreaker is titled after the nom de guerre of its protagonist, Alex (Romain Duris, so devastating in The Beat That My Heart Skipped). It’s an apt epithet: “I break up couples for a living,” he tells us, after we see him do just that.
Set in Marrakech, that opening sequence is fleet, funny and smooth as butter, with a screwball sensibility that raises hopes of a decent — if ridiculously implausible — romantic-comedy ride. And until the fizz-smothering appearance of bland beauty Vanessa Paradis (singer, model and longtime squeeze of Johnny Depp), that’s exactly what we get.
Hired by friends and family members to save unwitting women from settling for the wrong men, Alex has only two rules: Never interfere if the breakup request is motivated by race or religion, or if the woman is genuinely happy. This means he interjects only on behalf of women either unaware that they are miserable or unable to act on it — an inherently insulting premise that only a French farce, and the scruffy jowls of Monsieur Duris, could conceivably pull off.
Assisted by his multilingual sister Melanie (Julie Ferrier) and her electronics-whiz husband Marc (Francois Damiens), Alex screens and stalks, flirts and insinuates himself between his mark and her undesirable paramour. Turning on tears and charm at will, he concocts elaborate back stories designed to melt a girl’s heart, then courteously withdraws before consummation. Having glimpsed ecstasy, his target can’t get away from her loser beau fast enough, and Alex has earned his fee. It’s a booming family business, until he meets Juliette (Paradis), a symphony of gap teeth, knock knees and rampant cheekbones.
A wine expert and once-wild daughter of a flower tycoon, Juliette is planning a Monte Carlo wedding to Jonathan (Andrew Lincoln), a wealthy Englishman with overbearing parents and an underdeveloped chin. For undisclosed reasons, Juliette’s daddy wants this seemingly perfect relationship ended, an assignment that would normally violate Alex’s principles. But with a relentless loan shark and his East European sidekick lurking unexplained in the wings, Alex’s principles evaporate like the morning mist on the Riviera. Photogenic capers ensue.