RECOMMENDED: Ever read Coco Chanel’s Wikipedia page? You should try it sometime; you may not like everything you find there — to be sure, Coco herself probably didn’t (cue scenes of Nazi sympathizing, dead lovers and other non-delights) — but it will put into perspective that whole thing about life being long and all of us containing multitudes. To that end, Coco Before Chanel is really chapter one, in which our hero — who will one day be the greatest name in fashion that perhaps the world has ever known — first begins to gather up her wings and fly. Audrey Tautou, as Coco, actually acts here (as opposed to making cutesy faces and tapping the top of various and sundry creme brulees with a spoon) and through her, you begin to see just what a radical Chanel was in her time, especially at the outset. Fantastic costumes, of course, prevail throughout, and Alessandro Nivola acquits himself well as the love interest, too. In French, with English subtitles.

ALSO NEW IN THEATERS: Couples Retreat, starring Vince Vaughn and Jason Bateman as husbands who go somewhere with their wives one time and encounter a European in a Speedo; The Boys Are Back, which sees Clive Owen in a rare turn as a father in this family drama; and The Cartel, a doc about the mess that is public education in the U.S.

For more recommendations on films currently in theaters, visit Philebrity’s Film Sweat archive. And click here for movie times.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 9th, 2009 at 12:03 pm.