Notre univers impitoyable (2008)

Mediocre french romantic drama (is that a genre?), starring Jocelyn Quivrin, the très mignonne Alice Taglioni and old warhorse Thierry Lhermitte (who you might remember as the "méchant" Pierre Brognant from the excellent Dîner de Cons).

On a sad note, it turns out that Quivrin was killed in a car crash in 2009, leaving behind Taglioni, his real-life partner, and young son.

The most interesting thing about the film (apart from the lovely Mlle Taglioni, of course) is that it represents a rare inversion of the relationship we normally see between anglo-saxon and continental european cinema. That is, it takes an interesting, novel idea (in this case the Gwyneth Paltrow flick Sliding Doors), and blatantly rips it off. At least the french are subtle enough not simply to remake the same film (cf. Vanilla Sky): they just took the essential idea, of having two parallel story lines running in two alternate realities which differ in only one decisive "what if" moment. 

The rest of the story that is fleshed out around this premise is fairly banal so I won't go into too many details. Suffice it to say that Quivrin and Taglioni are a yuppie couple working at a some kind of law firm in the La Défense district of Paris. The reality-splitting moment occurs when a senior staff member dies suddenly, leaving a place for a prestigious promotion (to be chosen by the boss Lhermitte). In one reality Quivrin gets the job, in the other it's Taglioni. The two story lines then follow the changes that occur as each one adapts to their new, superior role. As I say, it's rather predictable, run-of-the-mill stuff from there on.

Bottom line: BOF.