On Demand Weekly

On Demand Weekly provides new movie reviews of hot movies on demand from the POV of watching from the comfort of your home.  ROMANTICS ANONYMOUS / Les émotifs anonymes (Tribeca Film). 

ROMANTICS ANONYMOUS
Chocolate Is Nothing To Be Afraid Of
By Kris Scheifele

Variety is the spice of life, unless it—along with most everything else—scares the living daylights out of you. The latter is the case for the two lead characters, Angélique (Isabelle Carré) and Jean-René (Benoît Poelvoorde), in ROMANTICS ANONYMOUS.

In France, this romantic comedy is called LES EMOTIFS ANONYMES, a title which doesn't really translate properly into English. In French, an émotif is not a romantic, but rather someone who has emotional issues, particularly a fear of other people. Plagued with anxieties, an émotif is deeply perturbed by mundane social situations, especially intimate ones. In France, they even have an Alcoholics Anonymous-type support group for émotifs to come out, so to speak, of the closets they literally hide in. It was as a member of this group that director, co-writer, and émotif himself, Jean-Pierre Améris, found his inspiration.

The plot is simple. Without knowing they share the same affliction, Angélique, émotif, goes to work for Jean-René, émotif, in Jean-René's ailing artisanal chocolate factory. Almost immediately, he asks his new hire out on a date. Not nearly as twee as the 2001 film, AMÉLIE, everything is super adorable and old-fashiony, but the story seems to be happening now which makes it hard not to think about the legal tinder box on which the film's premise rests. Eventually, this looming spectre fades as the two jittery lovebirds faint, sweat, and stutter through interactions fraught with self-perpetuated panic.

Obviously, variety, change, and mixing it up are definitely not the spice of life for Jean-René. Variety, however, will not be denied and spice literally saves the day. It just so happens Angélique is a brilliant, avant-garde chocolate chef, which she conceals for fear of the spotlight. Pink peppercorns, paprika, and Porcini breathe life into the unevolved, run-of-the-mill chocolates that have been both the safe staple and downfall of the business.