Love Me If You Dare

Cast: Guillaume Canet, Marion Cotillard, Thibault Verhaeghe, Joséphine Lebas-Joly, Gérard Watkins, Emmanuelle Grövold
Director: Yann Samuell
Writer: Jacky Cukier, Yann Samuell
Genre: Romance/Comedy
Rated: M sexual references, low level sex scenes, low level coarse language, low level violence
Running Time: 94 Minutes

From The Visionary Mind Of Director Yann Samuell Comes France's Hit Comedy!

Synopsis:
Best friends Julien and Sophie started a game together, which they continue as adults -- a fearless competition to outdo one another with daring and outrageous stunts. While they often act out to relieve one another's pain, their game continues even as each marries someone else although it might be a way to avoid the fact that they are truly meant for one another.

My Verdict:
If you were ever the subject of childhood taunting or bullying then you will be able to identify with the two main characters of 'Love Me If You Dare' - Julien and Sophie. As 8-year-olds, Julien and Sophie found a common bond after both being victims of taunts and harassment by their peers. At the time, Julien's mother has just been diagnosed with a terminal disease and she gives him a box/tin as a keepsake. Julien adores it but gives it to Sophie to pacify her after she is subjected to yet another session of persecution for being Jewish. Sophie returns it one day, with a dare attached to it. Julien accepts and the game is on, with these dares continuing for years. Each dare becomes more and more dangerous yet both Julien and Sophie seem unable to stop their desire to continue playing the game. The tin holds such power over both of them, and is the key to their relationship.

'Love Me If You Dare' is told in a fairly whimsical manner, sometimes dreamlike and sometimes almost surreal. Believing the attachment Sophie and Julien have for one another is the core of the movie; such is its strength even watching some of the dares, which are extraordinary and almost infantile. Guillaume Canet as the adult Julien and Marion Cotillard as the adult Sophie work well together, even going on to marry other people yet still maintaining the undying relationship that will ultimately be the death of them, or so it seems. The ending is way up there on the scale of credible versus incredible. 'Love Me If You Dare' is moving, uplifting, very quirky and sometimes bizarre, not everyone's cup of tea, but certainly a fun original romantic comedy that deserves to be seen.

Rating: B+

Christina Bruce