Marc Missonnier Movies

Russell Crowe teams up with Academy Award-winning writer/director Paul Haggis (Crash) and co-star Elizabeth Banks for this Lionsgate thriller concerning a man willing to break his wife out of prison in order to get her out of a murder conviction. Liam Neeson heads up the supporting cast, which includes Brian Dennehy, Olivia Wilde, and RZA. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide

This zany, French-language fish-out-of-water comedy concerns a married couple, Hugo (Dany Boon) and Ariane (Sophie Marceau), who attempt to escape from the doldrums of nuptial banality by exchanging professional lives. He takes up his wife's career as a door-to-door jewelry salesman, and she assumes control of a building rental company - leading to a predictably endless series of outrageous complications. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

When an Afghani taxi driver realizes that his latest fare left an infant child in the back seat of his cab, his quest to track down the mother sends his fate in a direction he never thought possible. The mother having long since disappeared into the crowded streets, prompting distressed driver Khaled to take the child first to the police, and later to a local orphanage. Indifference and unforeseen obstacles hinder Khaled's quest to reunite the child with his mother at every turn, in time leading him to surmise that he should take the founding home - at least temporarily. After all, Khaled has only fathered girls, and even his own dad thinks it a good idea to care for the boy. Though he isn't entirely opposed to the idea of raising a boy, Khaled ultimately makes the decision to post a reward in hopes that the mother will recognize her child and step forward to claim him. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

A young man attempts to fulfill the last wish of his dying grandfather in director Emil Kusturica's quirky romantic comedy Just outside of Belgrade, a man named Tsane (Uros Milovanovic) lives on a remote hilltop with his grandfather Deda (Aleksander Bercek) and Cvetka the family cow. Apart from Tsane and Deda, the only other inhabitant of the tiny village is a teacher named Bosa (Ljilana Blagojevic). One day, Deda announces to Tsane that he is dying, and that before he passes away he wants his grandson to travel to the nearest town and sell Cvetka at the market. With the money that he makes from the sale of the cow, Tsane is to purchase a religious icon and any other items he wishes. Before the young man returns home, however, his must also find a wife. Though the prospect of finding a bride before his grandfather dies will indeed prove a formidable task for Tsane, just when it seems that all hope he runs into the beautiful Jasna (Marija Petronijevic) - who is late for school once again. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Actress-cum-director Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi's sophomore feature, the comedy-drama Les Actrices (Le reve de la nuit d'avant), follows the trials and travails of Marcelline (Tedeschi), a tense and jittery stage thesp whose personal and professional life threaten to fall into pieces simultaneously. On a personal level, Marcelline hits the midpoint of her life, hears her biological clock ticking, and longs desperately for a child. At work, Marcelline's inability to find the core of her character, Natalia Petrovna, in a production of Turgenev's A Month in the Country only causes her emotional tension to double. In time, she regresses into such a basket case that she can barely respond to the stage director's query about whether she is right or left-handed. Marcelline's natty and overanxious mother (Marisa Borini, Tedeschi's mother in real life) weighs heavily on her as well, pressuring her constantly about the need to find an appropriate suitor before time runs out; instead, Marcelline finds herself drawn helplessly to Eric (Louis Garrel) a sexy young actor in the production - who, without her knowledge, nurtures reciprocal affections. This parallels the events that befall Petrovna in Turgenev's play, and indeed, at one point the spirit of Petrovna (Valeria Golino) appears to Marcelline for much-needed counsel. Meanwhile, as Marcelline weathers her own personal crises, one of her friends, Nathalie (Noemie Lvovsky) - the assistant to the play's director - struggles with her offstage lack of fulfillment as a wife and mother. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

Writer/director Samuel Benchetrit takes the helm for this laid-back crime comedy that weaves together four stories which all eventually convene at a roadside diner. Franck (Edouard Baer) is a petty criminal who is currently pondering the prospect of holding up a remote diner. When observant waitress Suzie (Anna Mouglalis) eventually realizes that Franck has more than a meal on his mind, she reveals that she too had considered robbing the place until getting disheartening peak at the anemic cash register. In the second story, desperate criminals Leon (Bouli Lanners) and Paul (Serge Lariviere) kidnap the daughter of a wealthy businessman in hopes of earning a tidy ransom, but soon find themselves forced to act as surrogate parents when the young girl is revealed to be suicidal. Later, after two aging rock stars (Alain Bashung and Arno) discuss their careers over a meal at the diner, four former gangsters smuggle an old friend out of the hospital for a nostalgic trip to their former hideout, only to discover that the familiar log cabin has long since been razed and replaced with a modest diner that provides no means for lying low. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

French helmer Christian Vincent's quirky labyrinthine comedy Quatre étoiles (AKA Stars, 2005) opens with a comely young girl named Franssou (nicknamed France) stumbling into a highly promising set of circumstances. Though France's great-great aunt feels less than completely enchanted with her, she wills the young girl an inheritance of 52,000 Euros ($62,000.00) on her deathbed. Upon receiving the money, France promptly ditches her dishwater-dull beau and high-tails it to a posh hotel in Cannes, where she falls into the lap of Stephane - a pushy flim-flam artist eager to pass himself off as Elton John's front man, then to hit France up for 30,000 of the Euros. Though France sees right through his ploy, she (surprisingly) agrees to the request - but nothing can compare Stephane for the conditions that France will impose - or for the genuine feelings that France begins to harbor for him. Or does she? Screen vet François Cluzet co-stars; Vincent co-authored the script with Olivier Dazat. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

Gallic writer-director Eric Barbier borrows Hitchcock's old premise of an innocent unjustly accused of lurid and brutal actions - with all evidence pointing inconveniently to him - for the Parisian-set thriller Le Serpent. Yvan Attal stars as Mandel, a slightly introverted photographer careening toward an ugly divorce from his affluent German wife. Back into his life waltzes Plender (Clovis Cornillac), a psychopath obsessed with obtaining vengeance on Mandel for a long-ago trauma that he believes the photographer caused during childhood. The revenge takes the form of a model who falsely accuses Mandel of rape and then turns up dead in the photographer's car - making him the number one suspect. At the same time, Plender begins to inveigle himself into the confidences of Mandel's unsuspecting family. Barbier also authored the screenplay, adapting a novel by Ted Lewis (Get Carter). ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

Diagnosed with terminal cancer and given only a short while to live, a successful fashion photographer embarks on one final journey in the second of three films in a trilogy about death and mourning from French director François Ozon (the first entry in the the trilogy was Under the Sand) . After passing out during a particularly grueling photo shoot, high profile shutterbug Romain (Melvil Poupaud) is shocked to discover that his body has been ravaged by a fully metastasized cancer that will soon kill him. Without revealing the cause for his erratic behavior, the shell shocked Romain commences to alienate his entire family and ditch his handsome young boyfriend before connecting with affable waitress Jany (Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi) at a roadside café while en route to his grandmother's house. Upon arriving at the home of the one family member he knows will be joining him shortly in death, Romain's naked vulnerability is met with a gentle ear and sound advice. Once again meeting with the kindly Jany on his way to his ultimate fate, Romain and the waitress strike up an unusual bargain. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

In this tart comedy from France, Raphael (Edouard Baer) is a glib but talented author who has built a career out of ghost-writing autobiographies for a variety of celebrities. Raphael is also happily dating Muriel (Marie-Josée Croze), a successful architect, but that begins to change when he begins his latest project, a book on soccer superstar Kevin (Clovis Cornillac). While wading through Kevin's monumental ego and strange creative notions is a challenge in itself, what really sets Raphael's mind off course is the discovery that Kevin is dating Claire (Alice Taglioni), the object of Raphael's unrequited affection while he was in college. Raphael is suddenly determined to win Claire away from Kevin, though he hasn't figured out how to do this without alienating his wife and his client. Mensonges et Trahisons et Plus Si Affinité (released in English-speaking territories as The Story of My Life) was screened in competition at the 2004 Avignon Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

First-time director Samuel Benmchetrit's 2003 debut Janis et John (Janis and John) follows the comedic exploits of a down-on-his luck insurance salesman as he attempts to make up for some very poor financial decisions. Pablo Sterni (Sergi Lopez), the aforementioned insurance salesman, has, until recently, been an honest business man. As of late, though, Pablo had been siphoning money from one of his more successful client's accounts -- one that covers a very expensive sports car. When that client, Mr. Cannon (Jean-Louis Trintignant), turns in a loss claim for that car for a half-million francs, Pablo finds himself in a tight spot. Inspiration strikes when Pablo learns that his hippy-dippy cousin Leon (Christopher Lambert, billed as Christophe Lambert) has just inherited a million francs from his recently deceased father. Leon, a perpetually stoned record store owner, lives solely for the day his 1973 vision of John Lennon and Janis Joplin's Christ-like return to Earth is fulfilled. After visiting with his cousin, Pablo decides to assist Leon in reliving his dream -- as well as parting him with much of his inheritance -- by convincing his wallflower wife, Brigitte (Marie Trintignant, murdered mere weeks before the film's debut, thus marking her final film appearance) and an out-of-work actor (François Cluzet) to impersonate Janis and John. Janis et John was selected for inclusion in the 2003 Montreal World Film Festival. ~ Ryan Shriver, All Movie Guide