Little White Lies feels overstretched in its two-and-half hour running time, with Canet too reliant at times on montages accompanied by the soundtrack of 1960s and 1970s American classics to drive the narrative.
Populist fare from across the channel that will amply repay those ready to put the time in. The scenery, meanwhile, makes you want to run out and buy a timeshare.
In a style reminiscent of Woody Allen, Canet balances the characters’ fraught relationships with the script’s lighter comedy, keeping the audience invested in a group who many may relate to but whose lifestyle is seemingly fantastical.
It’s overlong, but with its gorgeous cast, irreverent humour and beautifully drawn characters, this smart comedy-drama is the kind of movie Couples Retreat and Grown Ups should have been. Please, nobody let Adam Sandler anywhere near a remake.
At times the film seems like a farce without jokes, at others like a satire without observations.
The fine use of music and some wonderful acting (Marion Cotillard just gets better and better) makes the stay a very pleasant one.
A long, hard slog.
Little White Lies unspools as glossy, high-grade tosh, a sun-dappled Big Chill, without the rigour or insight required to make you care about these people and wonder which bed they will eventually wind up in.
Nicely acted...yet the characters are too self-absorbed and charmless to engage.
It's amusing at first before it turns sickeningly self-satisfied and features a final scene tailored to make you blow chunks into your popcorn.
Canet can't seem to decide if he's making a farce or an earnest melodrama and his specious attempt to give everyone a moment of tearful redemption during the insufferably long climax is just unbearable.
The truths don't always ring true, the characters become increasingly dislikable the more we come to know them, the duration is excessive, and there's a tearful, cringe-making funeral to the strains of Nina Simone's version of "My Way".
Little White Lies is almost as much of a pleasure to watch as it must have been to make.
A rich and satisfying, if overlong, tale of friends and lovers.
He's well served by a solid ensemble...however, the director lets himself down with a dreadful, saccharine ending.
Marion Cotillard keeps White Lies in the family
General release. Check local listings for show times.
RSS feed of Cinema reviews