Priceless (2006 film)

'Overpriced') is a 2006 French romantic comedy film co-written and directed by Pierre Salvadori, and starring Audrey Tautou and Gad Elmaleh.

Irène is a gold digger who convinces wealthy men to fund her lavish lifestyle in exchange for companionship and sex.

When Irène's elderly lover Jacques gets drunk and falls asleep on her birthday, she goes to the hotel bar, where she assumes the barman is absent and Jean is a millionaire guest.

Pursuing her, he spends all the money to his name to pay for her company, including his savings and pension plan, until he uses his final euro for "10 more seconds" to look into her eyes.

The website's critics consensus reads, "Priceless is a light, farcical rom-com that features sharp performances from Audrey Tautou and Gad Elmaleh.

"[4] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 72 out of 100, based on 20 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

After its March 2008 premiere in the United States, Stephen Holden of The New York Times described the film as an "amusing ball of fluff that refuses to judge its characters' amoral high jinks" and a "shrewdly cast" film "winking at the vanity of wealthy voluptuaries and hustlers playing games of tainted love."

"[6] According to Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle, what makes the film "fun" is "the harshness wrapped in a pretty package.

LaSalle noted the following:[7]"Priceless is an entertaining sex farce that takes its characters to some of best hotels and most exclusive restaurants in France, and to watch it is to marvel at how some people live - and how you don't.

But here's the interesting thing: Through this seduction, Priceless turns the viewer into a harlot, too, who can suddenly understand why Irene would do anything and sleep with anybody just to stay in this lifestyle.

With its luxury-tourist locations, it is basically vulgar, and not in a good way, and reminded me of the opening title sequence to the 70s TV show The Persuaders!, but without that programme's charm.