Reviews

Spiral (Engrenages) is without a doubt the best 'Policier' ever. A not-up-to-par Spiral is still miles better than most other television dreck where crimes are solved by the correct mixture of politically-correct characters.

Season Six's overall theme appeared to be the writers considering their job security. There were enough interesting story lines but those were given limited screen time and left incomplete - tune in next season! - and Season Six was turned into the Laure and Gillou Stake-Out Show.

While still an excellent series, if Season Six was the first season of Engrenages that you saw, you'd be wondering why it got such rave reviews and high scores.

In the "External Reviews" section there are a couple of English-speaking film fans who got to see this movie, I am assuming, with English sub-titles. I couldn't find any. I "ripped" the Italian sub-titles from the DVD, used Google to translate them to English, cleaned them up as best I could before watching the movie.

I am a Laura Morante fan since seeing "Remember Me, My Love"; actually even before that as I enjoyed "The Dancer Upstairs" without knowing who Ms. Morante was. She both stars in and directs this film, "Cherry on the Cake".

Even cutting the film some slack because my sub-titles were less-than-professional, it was not a great film. Did I enjoy it? Absolutely, but on the strength of Laura Morante's talent as an actress, not because of the movie itself.

The premise is that "Amanda", a woman who her best friend's husband, a psychiatrist, claims instinctively ruins her chances with any man who may be a prospective suitor, meets "Antoine" who she mistakenly assumes to be gay, therefor, not a prospect. The predictable happens from there, not all that well.

If the film were on a see-saw, everyone else, plot included would be on one end. On the other end would be Laura Morante the actress, whose beauty, facial expressions and body language, tics and inflections are perfect and enough, for her fans, to balance the 'see-saw'.

For those not aware of the cast and this is simply a Rom-Com with sub-titles, unfortunately, there are better offerings out there.