International Spotlight: 'Mon Inconnue', a rom-com when you need it the most

Put yourself in the headspace. You met the love of your life when you were in high school and never left each other’s side since then. You have grown up and grown old together, gone through ups and downs. Maybe eventually more downs than you were able to cope with. You fight. You wake up in a parallel universe and they don’t know who you are anymore. Your entire life is different. It’s like you have never met. You remember everything, they don’t. Then starts the most heart-wrenching quest to make them love you again. 

This is the plot to Mon Inconnue (Love at Second Sight), the French film by Hugo Gélin which came out in 2019. The romantic comedy holds all the necessary and beloved components of a great romance film. The pining, the humour, the loser man and the high-achieving successful woman, … All you need to make you leave this world for a grand total of an hour and 57 minutes and worry about someone else’s relationship problems for a change. 

It is also a film with a gorgeously talented cast. Our national pride François Civil as the main character, Raphaël, Joséphine Japy as the talented piano-player, Olivia and Benjamin Lavernhe as the comic-relief best friend, Félix. 

The film is made by the awkward moments of life; the untimely laughs, cringe-worthy lines and badly timed love declarations. It is not the happiest rom-com I have seen (and many I have seen indeed) but its heartache is made up for by the actors’ charming personalities and dazzling smiles. It is about love, in its beauty but also in its roughness and grief. Falling in love with your soulmate once is lucky enough, imagine getting to fall in love with them all over again.

If after all of this my words weren’t enough to convince you to watch this film, then maybe, researching “François Civil” on Google will do it for me. You will not be disappointed.