Melanie Laurent's _Wingwomen_ and Sofia Coppola's _Priscilla_
came out on the same week. Predictably, the former gets
dismissed in the New York Times and the latter receives the
auteurist masterwork treatment (not just a glowing review
but a softball hype piece on its director too). I am not
planning to see _Priscilla_ or any more films from Coppola,
but it sure sounds like another bore-fest centered around
a vacant, dullard without a spark of intelligence or
intellectual curiosity in her head. All of Coppola's films
are like that, except _Somewhere_ which has three of four
such characters trying your patience simultaneously.

_Wingwomen_ is far from Laurent's best or deepest work. She
takes no writing credit (the screenplay is by 2 writers led
by the well-respected Cedric Anger, who cowrote Techine's
_In the Name of My Daughter_, and is "inspired" by a comic
book). It is billed as an action-comedy. In the early
going I worry it is going the way of the glib _6 Underground_,
also starring Melanie Laurent, which makes light of bloody
carnage. It turns out to be mostly a female-bonding film,
a _Eat Pray Love_ on the larceny circuit (not that I've
actually seen _Eat Pray Love_). Much of the film even takes
place in the Mediterranean (Corsica not Italy). The locations
are clever and the plot progression genuinely unexpected
(a hide-out in the forest, a chapel for the climatic heist
where the enemy is not gun-toting goons but officious movie
types who suddenly descend on the chapel and make a massive
nuisance of themselves. There is actually very little
fighting going on.

Melanie Laurent's Carole is a thief mastermind who works
with best friend (open-relation lover?) Alex played by Adele
Exarchopoulos. They are under the thumb of "godmother"
(Isabelle Adjani), and team up with newcomer Sam (Manon Bresch)
to steal a famous painting. Laurent is the brain, Alex the
muscle and sniper, and Sam a race car driver whom they train
in dark art. The film is another grand showcase for Laurent's
effervescence; her comic timing is just immaculate. She is
the antithesis of every Sofia Coppola's protagonist. By
focusing on Alex's physical attributes (she does a convincing
hand-to-hand combat scene), director Laurent minimizes the
limitations of Exarpoulos. Bresch brings a fascinating mix
of jadedness and ingenue's cluelessness to the ensemble.
The best scene is undoubtedly that of Carole and Sam
masquerading as flamenco dancers to distract gangsters while
Alex picks them off one by one -- so profane yet elegant.
Beatrice Loayza of Artforum, who wrote the review for the
NYT, shockingly singled out Exarchopoulos' acting for praise.
Other than the physical stuff, the latter has the easiest,
stone-face-only acting requirement.

Much of the film is about the three dancing, talking about
the insecure Alex's man problems, cooking, sunbathing on
the beach, all to the tune of girly pop hits. It is a pointedly
feminist counterpoint to the leisurely male-bonding exercises
of the 1960s. But there is psychological depth too. Carole
and "godmother" are originally the team; now the aging diva
cannot let go of the leash. The ending, which is easy to
predict but is sweetly effective all the same, consists
of Carole making sure she does not do the same to her
proteges, ensuring she sets them free.

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