Potiche 3 Stars

By FleetUSA. This is a wry rom-com for the nouveau AARP set - but with star actors in France. Everyone in the film gets the chance to change their character and fate at least once. So it becomes a bit like musical chairs. Catherine Deneuve shows a bit of age and class as the "potiche" (in French a fancy vase) and Gerald Depardieu reminisces as the now fat, former lover who had just one chance with the rich girl but went the natural (for his background) way of union and elected office. You might say he made the most of his chance. The American title "Trophy Wife" doesn't really apply to this picture and is not the real French translation anyway - a trophy wife would not own the company and her husband (F Luchini) is a creep - creeps don't generally have trophy wives. From the fancy vase aspect, it is clear that she starts as that but definitely changes when confronted with problems as though they are opportunities to reassert the old time charm of her dad who founded the company. We all remember Deneuve as the ingenue in The Umbrellas of Cherbourg who had ALL her lines sung by someone else. Here as an inside joke she closes the movie actually singing a French ballad -- so so. Of course, the other inside joke is the company makes umbrellas. I have a hard time giving this campy rom-com more than 3 stars. fleetusa@gmail.