Apres Vous (2005)

Auteur theorists are excused from any discussion of Après Vous, a throwback populist French romantic comedy directed by Pierre Salvadori with the anti-elitist (and anti-psychiatric) élan to suggest that any suicidal know-nothing can pass himself off as a wine expert if lent the right bow tie. Louis (José Garcia, with the moist eyes of Robert Downey Jr.), the depressive in question, is in the process of hanging himself from a Paris park tree when he's saved by passing stranger Antoine (seasoned Daniel Auteuil, recalling his early comic roles before Jean de Florette). A loser at love with more neuroses up his arsenal than The Odd Couple's Felix Unger, Louis is ungrateful; a manager at a Paris brasserie and a hapless nice guy, Antoine is undeterred from doing unwanted good. Rehabilitation of his prize booby includes giving Louis a job as a sommelier (with advice to always recommend a burgundy) and tracking down the jilted lover's ex (Sandrine Kiberlain). The pileup of complications, the animated title sequence, and even the pop song that bounces the action along are weightlessly silly — and unabashedly nice. Suicidal depression has rarely looked so amusing.