Odette Toulemonde

Neophyte director Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt's French-language romantic comedy Odette Toulemonde concerns the unlikeliest of relationships that develops between two Parisians. The title character (Catherine Frot) is a forty-year-old saleswoman, saddled with two children (an adolescent daughter and a hairdresser son), who spends her days hawking cosmetics from behind the counter of a Parisian department store. Odette has absolutely no reason to feel limitless joy or to retain a bright, positive outlook on life, but experiences both - thanks in no small part to the novels of her favorite author, Balthazar Balsan (Albert Dupontel). Meanwhile, Balsan ostensibly has everything - money, fame, success - and yet feels unbridled emptiness inside. These two lives suddenly intersect and complement each other in fantastic and unexpected ways. Nicolas Buysse, Jacques Weber, Nina Drecq and Fabrice Murgia co-star; Schmitt authored the original script.~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide