Co-writer/director Gérald Hustache-Mathieu gets close (but no cigar) in this wintry detective yarn about a small-town beauty whose suicide may have been murder. As a crime novelist suffering from writer’s block, Jean-Paul Rouve stumbles upon the book-worthy case much as its victim (Sophie Quinton) stumbled upon her career when a chance meeting led to a photo shoot, local ad spots, national publicity campaigns and a shot at film stardom. But her life is barely her own, patterned after the looks, life & career trajectory of Marilyn Monroe; sex-pot blonde to brief marriage to a sports star; intellectual boyfriend to affair with married politico; increasing delays at work and a growing addiction to pills & champagne. Great atmosphere on the French/Swiss border (brrr!), and a sweet turn from assistant cop Guillaume Gouix who seems a bit stuck on the writer. (The film starts to run down after he gets injured out of the storyline.) By the time the threads start coming together, everyone seems to have lost confidence in the material. And botched details start sticking out. Why make the Arthur Miller stand-in a boyfriend instead husband #3? For that matter, why make the title ‘Poupoupidou’ when it should be ‘Boop-Oop-a-Doop,’ from the Betty Boop number Monroe sings in SOME LIKE IT HOT/’59. Not bad, just not good enough. Which also goes for Ms. Quinton’s looks as Marilyn.
SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY/LINK: Over the past two decades, there must have been a fresh Marilyn Monroe bio-pic every other year. Time to give it a rest. Instead, try the real thing with MM at her most relaxed and pleasingly inconsequential in HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE/’53. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2018/05/how-to-marry-millionaire-1953.html
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