At the Movies

by Esther McCarthy

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TROUBLE IN FRENCH PARADIS

SEDUCTIVE: Duris charms ParadisSHE'S best known as the woman who stole the heart of Johnny Depp, or the sultry teenager who provocatively sang Joe Le Taxi all those years ago.

But Vanessa Paradis enjoys a successful career as an actress in her native France and her new movie comes to cinema screens this weekend.

Heartbreaker (15A, French with subtitles) tells the story of Alex, a man whose job it is, as he explains, "to wreck couples for a living".

He gets paid, normally by a jealous or aggrieved third party, to use his skills to force a relationship off the rails.

Played by Romain Duris, Alex is canny at seducing the women involved, persuading them to break off their relationships.

Although he has a golden rule not to meddle in romances that aren't already fragile in the first place, Alex owes a scary gangster a lot of money.

So when he's offered plenty of cash to stop beautiful heiress Juliette (Paradis) from marrying her English boyfriend (Andrew Lincoln) Alex is up for the task.

Set against the glamorous backdrop of the French Riviera, what emerges is an escapist romance and a US remake is already being mooted.

Heartbreaker is now showing at selected cinemas.

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