That's Rich

Priceless Directed by Pierre Salvadori

The American poster for the French comedy Priceless shows an elegantly dressed Audrey Tautou surrounded by four hands offering up expensive baubles. From this, we can glean the basic plot: The adorable pixie from Amélie plays a gold-digger. It’s not inaccurate, but it is misleading. While the publicity’s focus is on Tautou, an actress Americans immediately recognize (she also starred in an art-house flick called The Da Vinci Code), Priceless belongs to her co-star, Gad Elmaleh, who lends the film the bulk of its charm, originality and genuine humor.

Elmaleh plays Jean, an all-purpose errand boy—he’s a housekeeper/bartender/ dogwalker—at a five-star hotel in Biarritz, the kind of place frequented by Irène (Tautou) and her older, richer companion. The story begins ordinarily enough, when a drunk, vulnerable Irène mistakes Jean for a hotel guest (he distinguishes himself from the working class by removing his bowtie, an ingenious Shakespearean sleight of hand). They share two romantic evenings, until her companion discovers her indiscretion and leaves her. One scene later, Jean is caught and called out on his class-switching impropriety. At this point we should be well into the film, awaiting a predictable reconciliation and resolution. But Priceless takes off from here: Alone and searching for a new money tree, Irène flees to Nice. Jean follows her and spends his life savings on Irène as she cruelly ekes out every last penny, knowing eventually he’ll have no choice but to give up. Jean is finally bled dry, but he’s saved at the last minute by Agnès (Annelise Hesme), an older woman of means who uses Jean in the same way Irène has been supporting herself for years. Jean finally wins Irène’s respect as her equal, and she takes him under her wing, tutoring him in the ways of gold-diggery. Love ensues.

Priceless has the quick pace and levity of classic screwball comedies, thanks to Elmaleh. In a typical rags-to-riches tale, he finds something unique in Jean; at first glance, he’s hesitant and fumbling—likely from a life of taking orders and being talked down to.

But he takes to his new life with fun and abandon, testing out confident, sexy facial expressions in the mirror and snapping back to his hangdog look when Agnès approaches; in this way, he’s a one-man study in status comedy. Elmaleh is the soul of Priceless, and watching his comedic chops is the highlight of this snappy, joyous ride.