- 2009
- Music Box Films
- 1 h 36 m
SummaryWhile traveling to Nantes for one evening, Emilie meets Gabriel. Equally seduced by one another, but both otherwise committed, they know they will probably never see each other again. He would like to kiss her. She as well, but a story prevents her from doing so: that of a married woman and of her best friend who were surprised by the effects of ...
Directed By:Emmanuel Mouret
Written By:Emmanuel Mouret
Shall We Kiss?
Metascore
Generally Favorable
70
User score
Generally Unfavorable
3.8
My Score
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Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
70
77% Positive
17 Reviews
17 Reviews
23% Mixed
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
100
Shall We Kiss? gives us storytelling as art. Emmanuel Mouret's romantic drama, in French with English subtitles, is expert, intricate, ineffably droll, ultimately provocative and entirely enchanting.
80
Witty, insightful portraits of hyperverbal, self-conscious young people falling in and out of love.
User score
Generally Unfavorable
3.8
25% Positive
1 Rating
1 Rating
25% Mixed
1 Rating
1 Rating
50% Negative
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
Jul 3, 2011
7
Well, it's no "Un Coeur en Hiver." But I enjoyed the storytelling; it's one of those plots that would've been utterly inane with minimally talented alums of "Friends" or "Grey's Anatomy" but somehow works with the light, chatty touch of the French cast. Some of the developments are not witty or humorous, but just plain silly. Perhaps the score is a hint: Much of it is from "The Nutcracker," and you just have to enjoy the dancing.
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Sep 26, 2025
3
L’histoire est intéressante mais son traitement compassé l’est nettement moins : on dirait une pièce de théâtre ! Sur les planches, ça donnerait sans doute toute sa mesure, surtout avec ces dialogues si cul-cul-la-praline qu’on se demande s’ils ne le font pas exprès -à l’insu de leur ignorance- mais un tel premier degré aussi soutenu du début à la fin infirme cette hypothèse. Au Moyen Age, on parlait de l’amour courtois ; ici il s’agit de l’amour bourgeois et grosso merdo d’un éloge à l’infidélité… mais toujours pour le bien du cocu ou de la cocue, à leur insu bien sûr. En gros, ça donne : « je te remercie de bien le prendre et de te faire jeter avec le sourire, prends la vie du bon côté et avec philosophie. On peut rester amis ? ». Tout est donc très intellectualisé dans la sacro-sainte conjuration des deux égoïstes et leur « grand amour » et à l’opposé de ce qu’on peut voir ailleurs habituellement, peut-être trop souvent outré (des cris, des larmes, le minimum syndical quoi) mais rien de tout cela ici, seulement de la « dignité »… ou de l’hypocrisie, on ne sait pas trop. Alors pourquoi pas, mais on a du mal à y croire ! Ce ton général très distancié et mollasson est aggravé par le jeu sur-joué et mal joué des acteurs et des actrices qui se retrouvent à l’unisson sur un pied d’égalité : ils sont tous à peu près nuls. L’histoire, je le répète, était pourtant intéressante, c’est donc vraiment dommage !
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75
An engaging romantic comedy that's deeper, smarter and more pessimistic than it appears at first glance, a film with shrewd insight into the mysteries of human attraction.
75
Mouret not only stars (opposite a delicate Ledoyen) as the slightly schlemiely fellow in want of a woman's affection, he also wrote and directed this enticing, weightless divertissement.
70
The result is that Shall We Kiss? puts its viewers in a bind worthy of the lovers themselves: should we organize a Socratic symposium on the issues raised by the film, or hurl our popcorn violently at the screen?
50
It is as if the director had studied the comedies of Eric Rohmer and Woody Allen from top to bottom and come away with all the wrong lessons.
By Jan Stuart
FULL REVIEW 50
Bogs down in the philosophical shallow end and never quite recovers from what's clearly meant to be a deceptively light tone.
By Ella Taylor
FULL REVIEW Jul 7, 2011
1
I joined this site just to declare that this movie is unwatchable. The script is infantile, and the events and behavior of the characters are excruciatingly unoriginal. Apparently, when famous critics watch a movie in French their critical thinking skills disengage. This movie is a disgrace to French cinema. I could go on...
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Production Company:
- Moby Dick Films
- Arte France Cinéma
- Canal+
- TPS Star
- La Région Île-de-France
- Conseil Régional des Pays de la Loire
- Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animée (CNC)
- Société des Producteurs de Cinéma et de Télévision (Procirep)
- Angoa-Agicoa
- K Films Amerique
Release Date:Mar 27, 2009
Duration:1 h 36 m
Tagline:True love is a complicated affair.
Awards
Venice Film Festival
• 1 Nomination


































