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My Best Friend (France 2006, 94 min. dir: Patrice LeConte, cast: Daniel Auteuil, Dany Boon, Julie Gayet)

If Daniel Auteuil was an American, he would be Richard Gere. Auteuil is that always available, always serviceable, but never quite exciting star. He had great beginnings in Jean de Florette back in the mid-eighties. Here he is again, voila!

This time he is a Paris antique dealer with a good business but an empty life. He has no friends. So here’s the studio pitch: man with no friends takes a bet to find one and learns what friendship is all about. Before you say “Pass-adena, remember that producers in France don’t need to make money on pictures; they just make their fees and move on.

Where the film gets interesting is when it happens to land on the SAME plot device used in Slumdog Millionaire. Bruno (Dany Boon), the hapless taxi driver who was suckered into Francois’s (Auteuil’s) bet, is also a trivia expert. Thanks to some high-powered manipulating by Francois, he gets picked for the French version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? (According to movie lore, the only country that has not had a version of this show is Iceland, where the bankers ran off with everybody’s money).

So it comes down to the “Lifeline” phone call where the contestant reaches out to one special friend who can help answer the most difficult question. The lifeline call to Francois is the beginning of an emotional connection between them. Francois finally begins to understand friendship.

In both Slumdog and My Best Friend, the phone call is the story turn towards resolution. In both films it works; we are emotionally hooked. Watch My Best friend and Slumdog Millionaire and ask yourself: Where would the movie writers be without David Briggs, Mike Whitehill, and Steve Knight.? These three veteran UK game show creators came up with the TV idea. The answer: up the creek without a third act, that’s where.