My Best Friend

(2006)

★ 6.1 IMDb · 251 votes

Genres: Comedy

Year: 2006

Runtime: 90 мин

Country: France, Italy

Director: Patrice Leconte

Cast: Даниель Отой, Дэни Бун, Julie Gayet, Julie Durand, Henri Garcin, Jacques Mathou, Marie Pillet, Élisabeth Bourgine, Жак Списсер, Audrey Marnay

Plot

Catherine refuses to believe that her business partner, the unlikeable François, has a best friend, so she challenges him to set up an introduction. Scrambling to find someone willing to pose as his best pal, François enlists the services of a charming taxi driver to play the part.

François is a middle-aged antique dealer. He has a stylish apartment and a fabulous life, but at a dinner with a group he considers his dearest acquaintances, he is blindsided by the revelation that none of them actually likes him. He's arrogant, self-centered and harsh, and they don't believe he knows the meaning of friendship. His business partner Catherine makes him a bet: if he can produce his best friend, she will let him keep the massive Greek vase he acquired that afternoon on the company tab. If not, it's hers. Having accepted the wager, François naively tears through his address book, trying to shoehorn an increasingly unlikely series of contacts into the all-important role. Moving through Paris, he keeps encountering a trivia-spouting, big-hearted cabbie named Bruno. Bruno's chatty, lowbrow ways grate against François's designer temperament, but he covets the other man's easy way with people. He convinces Bruno to teach him how to make friends and sets about learning the "three S's" - being sociable, smiling and sincere - though they don't come easy. Ultimately, François victory will depend on Bruno's naiveté in playing along, but what's the cost of cheating at friendship?