My Best Friend (12A) <!-- none onestar twostar threestar fourstar fivestar -->

Patrice Leconte, usually a dependable source of dark moral humour, misses altogether with this odd-couple squib. Daniel Auteuil plays another of his cold-fish bourgeois, this time a self-absorbed Parisian antiques dealer who apparently has no friends. His business partner makes a bet with him: if he can produce a genuine "best friend", he can keep the valuable Greek vase he recently bought on the company tab. This prompts some very broad comedy in which he fails to round up any friends, old or new, and receives a crash course in charm from a taxi driver (Dany Boon), a quiz nut and also a loner. Sadly, Leconte can't make it work, partly because his conception of Auteuil's character is misplaced - he's not as unpleasant as everyone keeps telling him - and the elaborate plot he contrives to demonstrate "true" friendship is pure blague.