Reel Deal: Romantics Anonymous

Average rating:

Here's what the critics are saying...

3/5 stars
By Joe Walsh for Cinevue.com

“Whilst Romantics Anonymous is at first glance a pleasant and charming film, it lacks the gravitas to make it truly memorable. What partially saves Romantics Anonymous are the lavish, almost 1920s-aesthetics incorporated into the present day (highly Parisian), with all the characters stylishly dressed in a way that only the French can achieve. The concept of a romantic comedy tinted with melancholy works very well within the context of quirky French cinema, and just prevents Romantics Anonymous from being a clichéd mess.”

3/5 stars
By David Jenkins for Time Out
“Jean-Pierre Améris’s featherlight provincial comedy is a triumph of no-frills storytelling and sweet characterisations. Benoît Poelvoorde is spot-on as fraught and frigid Jean-René, proprietor of a chocolate factory hitting tough times. The film’s gentle plea for a return to old-fashioned romantic ideals chimes well with the its old-school style, which offers nods to such classics as Ernst Lubitsch’s ‘The Shop Around the Corner’ and the entire Hepburn-Tracy cycle.”

3/5 stars
By David Parkinson for EmpireOnline.com

“Charming but uneven, director Ameris's film doesn't know whether to make us laugh or cry, and ends up doing neither. Still, a smart script offers plenty to keep incurable romantics happy.”

3/5 stars
By Andrew Schenker for SlantMagazine.com
“As simultaneously tasty and insubstantial as the bite-sized pieces of chocolate that its characters create, Jean-Pierre Améris's Romantics Anonymous is a typically anodyne rom-com given a certain poignant piquancy by the paralyzing shyness of its romantic leads. Like a good piece of dark chocolate, Améris's movie is tasty enough, but with just that right amount of bitterness.”

4/5 stars
By Ron Wilkinson May for MonstersAndCritcs.com

“Bland and predictable, but who cares? For the incurable Gallic romantic in all of us this is the film to see.”

2/5 stars
By Catherine Shoard for the Guardian

“Some will gag, others will guzzle: Jean-Pierre Améris's acquired taste romcom crashes together two Gallic neurotics – one a brilliant but hiccupy chocolatier, the other her perspiring boss. Broad, but not quite broad enough, laughs ensue, partly because these two straddle the barrier between quirky and actually disturbed.”

2/5 stars
By Tom Dawson for The List

“Despite the likeable performances from the two leads and some amusing moments in both group and individual therapy sessions, the briskly paced Romantics Anonymous is far more saccharine than bittersweet in its sensibility.”

4/5 stars
Avalon Lyndon for Hey U Guys
 
"What sets this apart from the standards of the genre is that these aren’t wise-cracking, spritely, perma-tanned 20-somethings; both Angélique and Jean-René are getting on a bit and worried that they will never have the confidence to find someone to love. American romcom-by-numbers producers should take a leaf of Améris’ book; Forgetting Sarah Marshall​ this is not. I think the key lies in the fact that we can all see a little bit of ourselves in these two, we would all rather hide from life sometimes than face it head-on."