While Laetitia Colombani's debut feature, He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not..., has an attractive gloss (terrific camerawork by cinematographer Pierre Aim) and a game cast, the filmmaker seems too in love with her own cleverness to recognize the essential thinness of her conceit. This is especially unfortunate because most viewers will anticipate the big "surprise twist" of the film early on, despite Colombani's contrived efforts to disguise it. Samuel Le Bihan is adequate as Loïc, the object of Angélique's (Audrey Tautou) affection, while attractive young co-stars Clément Sibony, Sophie Guillemin, and Elodie Navarre each make a strong impression in supporting roles. The first "act" of the film is carried along, to a large degree by Tautou's buoyancy and the colorful mise-en-scène, but the second act, in which the action of the first is reprised from Loïc's point-of-view, grows a bit tedious. Throughout the film, Colombani expends too much energy trying to misdirect the audience, and too little trying to uncover any psychological or emotional truth that might underlie her story. As a result, the film proffers a very unflattering generalization about the foolish romantic propensities of women as a gender. One can only hope that this is not what the filmmaker had in mind.
