Little is more copied on stage and screen than the French bedroom farce, with strange bedfellows making for high—or low—comedy while bouncing from bedroom to bedroom, or from bedroom closet to bedroom closet. Identities are confused, things are seldom what they seem and yet all usually comes together in a final scene, after which the characters retire to their respectable, or respective, bedrooms.
"Shall We Kiss?" which sometimes shows all the seaminess of a high school freshman textbook on sex education, and as much emotion, as well, is mostly funny because it does not take itself seriously and does not expect the audience to, either.
Michael Cohen is a furniture restorer in Nantes, and meets Julie Gayet, traveling from Paris on business. They they agree to meet for dinner. The primrose path looms before them, but Gayet tells a story. . . .
Seems there were two people, Nicolas (Emmanuel Mouret) and Judith (Virginie Ledoyen), who have been best friends since childhood. Both are in relationships with other people, but they have remained friends. And then Nicolas asks a favor. His sexual relationships are in the tank, and he asks his old friend to straighten things out in his libido. This is a slow and arduous process, almost like marching through a textbook. And the two excellent actors (Mouret’s affect is a bit like that of Woody Allen) play this one superbly.
At times, it’s reminiscent of a game of "Mother, May I?" at others. the twinkle in Mouret’s eye indicates he’s been planning this since puberty. All in all, while slight and light-hearted, "Shall We Kiss?" is very good fun, and if the ending is slightly unsatisfactory, well, try to come up with a better one.
At the Plaza Frontenac
-Joe