Change of Address

Emmanuel Mouret writes and directs this wispy, gently amusing French relationship comedy, and stars as the foppish, fumbling and perpetually be-scarfed French horn tutor David. The film opens with him renting a room from ditzy blonde Anne (Frédérique Bel) who swiftly becomes his confidante as he attempts to woo the attractive yet mysterious young student, Julia (Fanny Valette).

A trip to the seaside ends in disaster when Julia succumbs to the oily charms of Julien (Dany Brillant), an old-fashioned Lothario who, unlike David, knows the quickest route to a woman’s heart.

Adopting a very standard rom-com format, it’s all a bit too throwaway to connect on any lasting emotional level. Still, it would have been easy for Mouret to turn David into the kind of point-and-laugh loser that American indie cinema seems so enraptured by. But, gratifyingly, he never allows for a descent into caricature, presenting David as an endearing, fully-rounded, genuine character, whose time in the world of romantic endeavour delivers him to a satisfying (if hardly groundbreaking) ending.