User Reviews

You'll search far and wide to find a positive review of this film but you have found one here. Like every romantic farce, Up For Love (2016) is a comedy based on situational humour rather than dialogue or action. It's a genre that shows people revealing themselves by how they react to the unexpected and this one is funny and sad and loaded with charm.

The plot line is simple: a beautiful lawyer loses her phone and a caller offers to return it if she will dine with him. Freshly divorced Diane (Virginie Efira) is trying to move on and is vulnerable to the smooth-talking Alexandre (Jean Dujardin). When they first meet she is stunned to find that the high-profile architect is 4 foot 6 inches tall. It is a hilarious scene of studied avoidance and shifting glances. But they hit it off and start dating, and each situation into which Diane introduces Alexandre is a farcical study of how people react to his diminutive stature. Throughout it all, Alexandre endures the stares and jibes with good-humoured acceptance despite the callous insensitivity of people towards those who are different.

There is an unmistakable feeling of guilt in laughing at how Alexandre copes with everyday moments in his life, like needing to jump up into a normal size chair and see his dangling feet not reach the floor. But that is the whole point: how would we react in the situation? Dujardin is a pin-up star of French cinema and he plays here with irrepressible warmth and forbearance despite his short straw in life. Efira is his perfect match and plays middle-class embarrassment to perfection. Critics have complained that the digital effects to down-size Dujardin are clumsy. It is true that if you look for it, you can notice some between-scene differences in scale and perspective that slightly alters his size in relation to the frame. Just ignore it. The whole of cinema involves suspension of disbelief and this story has more than enough going for it to be spoilt by minor hiccups with experimental technology.

Love stories between mismatched souls have always been the lifeblood of romantic comedy, so in one sense Up For Love is just another take on an ancient theme. If your glass is always half empty, then this film is a flawed cliché. For others, it is a delightful romance that doubles as a serious essay on dealing with difference. It is heart-warming and awkward, original and familiar, all at the same time.

This is the classic French romcom with a twist. A dashing architect and a big girl lawyer fall in love with each other. Who wouldn't, they've got everything going for them, so much so that it's sheer willpower that keeps them from falling heels over head in love with themselves. And every man should take a few pointers from Alexandre how to properly woo a woman. The only hitch is that this French lover stands barely 1,40 m tall. Although this predicament is obvious from the start, and I felt a bit nauseous about how truly wonderful Alexandre is (he's great at anything), the movie still provides a lot of momentum and keeps the story going. It's especially fun to watch how they make the 1,82 m tall actor Jean Dujardin appear to be only 1,36 m tall by a number of old school tricks (his counterpart Diane (Virginie Efira) standing on a box, or Jean Dujardin kneeling) and CGI (green screen).

Digital effects and camera tricks have come a far way. Someone most definitely took a page out of the LotR and Hobbit movies on how to shoot a normal sized person with others, for the prior to appear like a small person. And it's nice to see someone as charismatic as Dujardin struggling because of his size. You see it does matter after all - or maybe it doesn't? The movie will provide the answer.

Public perspective may not be everything, but it's not shallow if you do care about the people around you and what you look like. Of course it is way more important to feel good about yourself in the first place. It that isn't the case, you are not even halfway there. It's nicely build up and while we go through the (expected) motions, we can still have fun watching this. Not a great movie, but a nice one ...

I particularly enjoyed the first half of this movie as I could totally relate to it. Not exactly by me dating such a short man, but men with other physical short falls that I wrestled with. Shallow, I know. This couple were so wonderful to watch and the chemistry between them was great. I absolutely loved the dance scene - I really was not expecting him to be such a good dancer. The 2nd half strayed way too much into typical Hollywood Rom-Coms, which I avoid like the plague- especially the ending. Still, overall - a good, watchable film with a gorgeous leads.

Here's a quote from Verne Troyer who played Mini-Me in the "Austin Powers" movie: "I think when average-size people start taking roles that were meant for dwarfs, that's a little frustrating because there aren't that many roles out there for height-challenged actors."

The last part of the quote is the key, there aren't many roles out there for height-challenged actors. Many years ago, you couldn't have little actors playing big roles unless your name was Danny De Vito or Bob Hoskins and they were hardly leading roles in the romantic definition of the word, same story in France, little guys could only play sidekicks or funny comic reliefs as the obligatory whipping boys of the bigger guys.

But Laurent Tirard can't get away with that excuse, in 2016, one of the greatest TV stars was Peter Dinklage and he proved that you could play a badass dude even below the 5ft limit. Tirard wanted to make a statement about love being blind and even a beautiful tall blonde girl like Virginie Elfira could fall in love with a man of 4ft and half. I can only cheer to that, finally a movie tackling the issue of height.

Yes, height is a serious issue for men, standing at 5ft7, I have endured some rejections because of my height and I could eavesdrop many girls' conversations always converging toward the same depiction of the ideal guy: tall and handsome (notice how tall always comes before handsome). I have always wished height would be handled as a serious issue in a movie, and here came the perfect film for that, and the intentions of the script are certainly laudable, but then... I saw the trailer and realized they took the most bankable actor to play the little man. Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!

Cinema is a tough racket, many are called and a few are chosen. In the case of little men, a few are even called. Seriously, how many young men under 5ft would dream about any ungrateful role in a big production if that meant a ticket to glory, and here comes a movie where it's the leading role. Finally, height has a point, where a little man is given the opportunity to shine and deliver a heart-warming message about love and tolerance. Surely, there must have been a handsome young man with a deficit in centimeters, how about having the guts to give one of these guys a chance... for the first time?

But not only Tirard went for the easy choice; picking the "it" actor in France but he also insulted the matter of height by turning it into a publicity stunt à la "Honey, I shrunk Dujardin", it's not about going to see the love story between a small man and a tall girl, but to have fun watching Dujardin being "downsized". Tirard turned the serious matter of height into a goddamn movie gimmick, which adds the insult to injury. Tirard would rather complicate the whole filmmaking process by having to shot with a green screen rather than casting a short man and letting it roll.

I guess the box office success is worth the risk of awkward and obviously staged interactions and of course, some will say that the casting made sense in terms of financial issues, that spectators are most likely to come to watch a Dujardin movie rather than an unknown man. Well, if Tirard couldn't care less about preventing a small man from a role tailor-made for him, he could have casted many other famous short guys in French showbiz and there are some, with notable talent. But the real problem is that the film is supposed to deliver a message which is that size doesn't matter.

Except that Tirard, by shrinking a tall guy instead of genuinely casting a small one, proved that size indeed mattered. It might be motivated by economical and aesthetical factors, but you wouldn't believe how many times, heightism is also due to these very causes, so Tirard doesn't taste the very soup he's selling to us, and I don't want any of it.

The film is a gutless production that doesn't believe in its own premise, and twice an insult to short people, because it pretends to care about them.

Yet another failed French Comedy. This decade has not been kind for French Cinema and comedies are pretty catastrophic. This one is no exception.

The main issue to enjoy this movie is suspension of disbelief : the special effects used for Jean Dujardin to become a small man just don't work. They're incredibly botched: Dujardin looks inserted into every scene, nothing flows naturally and, most importantly, he doesn't look like a short man, he looks like a shrunk man. There's a difference and it's a big one. He looks like somebody kneeling, he looks like somebody you put on a smaller chair and in SFX he looks shrunk to 60%

So one can never get into the movie simply because it doesn't look right.

And then you have to go through a fairly ridiculous Rom Com, quite by the books hence predictable, not funny for a single moment and not charming for another.

With the exception of Efira...who's just great. But even her charm and wits can not save this movie. Pass Pass Pass

Laurent Tirard's film certainly boasts an interesting premise and has a certain amount of fun subverting expectation early on.But it quickly settles into a routine rom-com format.

Honestly, i'm not fond of french movies BUT this one is so amazingly good !. I laughed, cried, jumped out of my chair - realizing how stereotyped I AM !. Everything and everybody in this movie is simply great!. Tempo, Shooting angles, music are great. Brilliant script, great acting and great directing.

First the long review from the other is not fair. It sounds like someone who admits being shorter is an issue. So can be being taller than the average. We are dealing with an Oscar winner and some really clever movie tricks and set design etc that is what is to appreciated also and the creativity and fun to show it. I don't want to spoil it but I find it has a general positive attitude. It teaches us to appreciate what's between the two ears and maybe legs also as it often does not match the rest of the body automatically. I have met several people who needed injections to grow, very costly treatments that maybe could have been approached in the movie also. See it and make up your own opinion.

Up for love is a movie about Alexandre, a little man that with his charming and gallant attitude tries to win the heart of equally charming and pretty Diana. I felt identified with Alexandre, since in the past I had a girlfriend that was taller than me xD

The movie focus a little in the socially acceptable side of the relationship without becoming too serious. It also has a few funny moments here and there. I think the best of the film is the performance of both actors, but I specially like Virginie's Efira portrayal of Diana.

Finally, it has been a long time since I don't see a delightful movie like this, and Up for Love becomes like an oasis in the middle of Hollywood blockbuster movies that I usually end up watching. I enjoyed it a lot.

If a short guy could fall for a taller woman, why tall woman could not fall for a short guy, as long as he's romantic, with strong sense of humor, a big heart, a charmer in his own way and his height? But of course, the short guy who falls for a tall beautiful woman, his first and must have requirement is, well, he must be rich, not just rich, but must be very rich, and social status must also quite recognizable to the general public. That, is the only way to make the tall beauty to at least allow you come near. Without enough dough, there's no way to approach a beautiful tall woman. Tom Cruise, Keith Urban, Sylvester Stallone, many short guys got no difficulty to make women fall for him in the first place, their later divorces or separations got nothing to do with their natural heights; there were private personal reasons caused the irrevocable and un-salvageable situations, but the heights of the men or husbands would not be the major reason.

I noticed a reviewer, ElMaruecan8231, who wrote a review on December 2017 and hatefully attack this movie that he admitted he wrote his review but actually didn't even bother to watch. And he slandered this movie and swear to boycott it. I don't know what's wrong with this guy. It seems that he got the same problems as Donald Trump, so obnoxious and so arrogantly self-righteous and self-important to attack a movie that he didn't even actually see it. This movie is as the "Fake News" to POTUS. A reviewer so pompously to attack a movie he didn't even watch is a new phase that imdb might have to deal with; it's no better than those fake reviews.

This movie is fun and well made. Jean Dujardin is a genius level actor and an irresistible charmer. I just don't know how the movie makers made him look so short all the way through, put him in one of the "Gulliver's Travels" situation - into a land of giants. Virginie Efira, what a lovely beauty and likable actor. If there's only one guy, a shorty, fell for her, the world must be deadly wrong.

Original script, perfect casting. I expect watching American remake with Peter Dinklage and Margot Robbie. Well done !

Someone should really dub this movie in English. There are a very few movie on this topic and we need more movies like this that is based on the height thing and many other social stigma, like having a relationship with a porn star, etc.