Gemma Bovery

Gemma Bovery (15)

France/UK 2014  Dir: Anne Fontaine  Starring: Gemma Arterton, Fabrice Luchini, Jason Flemyng, Isabelle Candelier, Niels Schneider, Pip Torrens, Elsa Zylberstein, Edith Scob

A light confection offering much self-congratulatory pleasure for smug Flaubertians who get all the references, this companion piece to Tamara Drewe is another showcase for Gemma Arterton at her most lubricious. Adapted by Coco Before Chanel director Anne Fontaine from a Posy Simmonds graphic novel, it requires prior knowledge of neither Bovary nor Bovery to appreciate its breezy, resolutely middlebrow charms. Even those inclined to adopt a posture of snobbish disdain must concede that this is a film whose audience is targeted as skilfully as etiolated indie dweebs are lured by Sundance manic pixie dream girl flicks or spotty teenage herberts are hooked by computer game adaptations starring pneumatic ladies in skin-tight costumes.

A fabulously hangdog Fabrice Luchini guides us through this modern-day meta Flaubert, which, perhaps surprisingly given its female creators, privileges his character over that of the Bovary figure. He plays Normandy baker Martin Joubert, who quit his publishing job in Paris to run a quaint, picturesque smalltown boulangerie that might have sprung from the books of Peter Mayle or Joanne Harris. Alas, having downshifted to this rural idyll, he’s still stuck with his nagging wife (Candelier) and idiot son. But as soon as Martin meets his new neighbour Gemma Bovery (Arterton), he’s entranced by both her beauty and the fanciful notion that she will somehow emulate her scandalous literary near-namesake. “She’s just a typical uptight Englishwoman pissed off with her life,” observes shrewd, shrewish Mrs. Joubert of the lovely Gemma, who’s relocated from Blighty with hubby Charlie (Flemyng), only to become swiftly disillusioned with her cold, damp, vermin-infested new home. Despite getting Martin’s hopes up by kneading his dough erotically, Gemma embarks on a torrid affair with hunky wastrel Herve de Bressigny (Schneider). Fortunately, our narrator’s gloom at this development is tempered by his thrill at the prospect of life imitating literary fiction under his orchestration.

Arterton’s charming performance as the wilful Gemma is perfectly matched by the deadpan Luchini as foolishly lovelorn romantic Martin. There’s strong support too, notably from Pip Torrens as a boorish expat English snob and Elsa Zylberstein as his French-born wife. Sure they’re caricatures, but you don’t need to chuck a croissant very far to hit a couple just like them anywhere in rural France. Watch out too for the great Edith Scob. She doesn’t get many scenes but she steals every one of them as Herve’s disapproving mother.