Jeanne Rinaldi (Florence Foresti) is an actress who makes her living in Paris dubbing voices onto American films and television shows, in particular the work of Hollywood star Jennifer Marshall (Nikki Deloach) who appears in a popular, prime time soap opera. All is going well for Jeanne as long as Jennifer keeps getting jobs, as otherwise her prospects are rather dim, or so she believes seeing as how her voice is so identifiable in French-speaking media as Marshall's, which is why when she receives the news that the star has decided to abruptly retire from the screen, Jeanne is not happy at all...
French comedienne Foresti made her highest international profile work to that date with Hollywoo (the title is explained closer to the end of the film), though it was not exactly a blockbuster or even a hit to rival another Gallic film obsessed with Hollywood, The Artist, that same year. It certainly didn't bear too much resemblance to that Oscar-winner, this being more of a fish out of water comedy (not for nothing does Crocodile Dundee get a mention in the dialogue) as Jeanne settles on one course of action to save her career - ten minutes in she is on the plane to Los Angeles, determined to meet with her meal ticket and change her mind.
This was one of those comedies where if people simply said what they were thinking, or told the truth more than once in a while, there would be no plot to speak of, or not one which stretched out to a rather too long hour and forty-five minutes at any rate. As it is, subterfuge is the main weapon in Jeanne's arsenal as she fast talks her way into situations she would be better off out of, or at least approaching in a more sensible fashion, but sensible is not a word in her vocabulary even if she does speak English and French at a dizzying rate, switching back and forth between them often in the space of a single sentence.
Broad would be the best way to describe Foresti's style, but shameless overacting can be quite funny in the right hands. For a while it seems as if she's trying to hard, even if she did contribute to the script presumably tailoring the dialogue to her talents, but after a while, once you've gotten used to her gurning and blethering you find her humour growing on you thanks to many of the people Jeanne meeting in Hollywood being as crazy as she is, and creating sparks in the process. Having no introduction to anyone she needs to see in the city, Jeanne relies on bluffing her way through conversations, and if there was any realism here at all she would have been deported forthwith.
But given this was set in Tinseltown, anything goes, so you could go along with whatever nuttiness Foresti threw at you. She was not alone, either, as her co-stars included Jamel Debbouze as a likely lad who Jeanne befriends, or rather ends up in the same place as, and they begin to get together to help out both Jennifer, oblivious that her new best mate is no fashion designer but actually more of an obsessed fan who needs her to go back to work, and Jeanne, though those goals are not mutually exclusive. There are a few nice scenes which raise a laugh or two, most oddly the one where Debbouze puts on music in the car which turns out to be Musical Youth singing Pass the Dutchie which he lustily bellows along to when Jeanne is trying to impress Jennifer. It's accurate to say that Hollywoo threatens to collapse into a massive quirkfest well before the end, but there's enough to amuse here to make it worth your while, especially if your sense of humour runs to material like Absolutely Fabulous. Music by Philippe Rombi.
[A trailer is all you get for extras on Studio Canal's DVD.]
