État de manque (2008)

This was on TV last night and I found it quite entertaining. Safia, Elsa, and Amandine work for an insurance company in La Défense. They think they have a grave problem each: Safia cannot reach orgasm and wants to stop drinking, Elsa stop smoking, and Amandine thinks she is too fat. These three finally conclude that Aurélien Rinauro, their co-worker, is the source of their problems. This guy once had a brief affair with each of them and they cannot get over it. Furthermore, every day they see him courting the attractive Kim. They plan to pay revenge on him.

Safia crashes his car, Elsa insults his manlihood on lifts' wall, and Amandine sabotages his mobile's answering message. They also put drugs in his mineral water than he falls asleep during an important meeting, and then find him an assistant who looks like a tart, so that no woman will go near him anymore. This last idea turns out to be a boomerang. Like in Francis Veber's Le dîner de cons, they each nominate a tart and after inviting the 3 poor souls to a dinner, they will choose the best. Their choice falls into Allison.

At first Allison looks as dumb as can be. Her spelling is horrible and she cannot do right a simple task. However, Allison is a hard worker, and after Amandine's boy tells her the truth "You're my mom's tart", she proves to Rinauro that she is the best assistant he's ever had and pays revenge to Safia, Elsa, and Amandine.

The first half of the movie is very good and I was a bit disappointed when Rinauro won in the end. I wanted Safia, Elsa, and Amandine to win. Perhaps the director chose to let morality win. The three went too far when they sacrifice Allison because of her appearance. I also think it's rather impossible that Allison changes that fast, or perhaps she had no experience as a secretary before? But she had been working for months (8 months?) in the insurance company before being promoted as Rinauro's assistant. She couldn't even type address on the right place. I'm glad Allison has a happy-ending, though.