Venus Beauty

Angele (Nathalie Baye) works in a beauty salon. She is 40 and afraid of love. She picks up strangers in cafés and sleeps with them. As a philosophy of life, it has its limitations.

When an attractive sculptor (Samuel Le Bihan) falls head over heels, she pushes him away. He persists, despite having a 22-year-old fiancée lurking in the wings. "Why always say the opposite of what you feel?" he asks. Good question. She cannot think of a decent reply.

Being French, the film has a certain charm, although its premise is flimsy. Girl talk in the salon takes up the slack (too much of this), while the romances of the other assistants are given an airing. Baye and Le Bihan parry verbally, while looking sexy enough to stop traffic. Life goes on, as do the buses, and you wonder what on earth this is about. Love conquering all? Surely not.