Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.5

Little White Lies Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov September 6, 2011

Guillaume Canet's "Les petits mouchoirs" a.k.a. "Little White Lies" (2010) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films-UK. The supplemental features on the disc include deleted and extended scenes; making of featurette; gag reel; behind the scenes footage; and more. In French, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked".

Ignored

A man (Jean Dujardin, Lucky Luke), who has partied for hours in a chic night club, is seriously injured in a motorcycle crash. A few hours later, his friends gather around his hospital bed. They cannot believe what has happened. A few of them begin crying. Outside of the hospital they argue whether to have the summer vacation which they have been planning for months or stay in the city. Eventually, they agree that there is nothing that they could do to help their friend and head to the south of France.

They are staying at Max’s (François Cluzet, Tell No One) beautiful villa, which is literally a few hundred feet away from the beach. Max is a successful restaurant owner who has invested a ton of money into it, which is why he wants everything to look perfect. But he has just discovered that the lawn has not been mowed for days and gone berserk. Max’s wife, Veronique (Valerie Bonneton, Summer Hours), thinks that he is overreacting.

Vincent (Benoit Magimel, The Piano Teacher) and Isabelle (Pascale Arbillot, Borderline) are happily married. They have a beautiful son, who has started asking a lot of questions for which they do not yet have appropriate answers. Recently, Vincent has discovered that he likes Max - and especially Max’s hands, his personality, and the way his friend handles himself in public. He does not what to make of his feelings because he is absolutely certain that he isn’t gay.

Eric (Gilles Lellouche, Family Hero) loves sex and is always looking to get laid. In recent weeks he has been thinking about having a threesome. He is in a serious relationship with a beautiful woman, Lea (Louise Monot, Same Sex Parents), who could not join him and his friends. Eric has just realized that he misses his lover more than words can describe.

Antoine (Laurent Lafitte, My Place in the Sun) is a hopeless romantic. He is also in a serious relationship with a beautiful woman, Juliette (Anne Marivin, Incognito), who has started texting him on his cell phone to tell him how much she misses him. Antoine does not know how to respond to her messages.

Marie (Marion Cotillard, A Very Long Engagement) wants to be loved but is afraid to commit. She has plenty of regular lovers but no one that she wants to have around at all times because serious relationships terrify her. Much to Marie’s surprise, one of her lovers, Franck (Maxim Nucci, Alive), a handsome guitar player, has just phoned to let her know that he is on her way to see her.

Jean-Louis (Joël Dupuch, Tell No One) lives a couple of miles away from Max’s villa. He has a beautiful yacht that has cost him a fortune - but it does not matter because he loves the sea. Jean-Louis is single but not lonely.

Actor/director Guillaume Canet’s Les petits mouchoirs a.k.a Little White Lies is likely to appeal only to viewers who like serious character study films but do not expect them to deliver profound statements about the way people live their lives.

The film’s only universal message is that life is unpredictable and never perfect - which is exactly what all of the main protagonists in it eventually realize. They all have dreams and obsessions that have prevented them from enjoying their lives, and they feel it, but for a long period of time they are unwilling to let go of them.

The various relationships are fascinating. With the exception of Jean-Louis, all of the main protagonists also undergo serious character transformations - mostly because they discover that material things and cheap thrills cannot bring them happiness.

Note: Last year, Les petits mouchoirs was screened at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Little White Lies Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.34:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Guillaume Canet's Little White Lies arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films-UK.

The last time a EuropaCorp film appeared on Blu-ray in the United Kingdom we had a bit of a problem - the film was L' immortel a.k.a 22 Bullets and instead of being presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.39:1 it was cropped to 1.78:1. The Blu-ray was produced by Starz/Anchor Bay-UK. Now we have another EuropaCorp film arriving on Blu-ray in the United Kingdom, but this time around everything is done right.

The high-definition transfer appears to be a direct port of the French high-definition transfer EuropaCorp used for their local Blu-ray release of Little White Lies. Needless to say, it is mighty impressive. Detail, clarity and contrast levels are outstanding, while color reproduction is flawless. Many of the outdoor scenes, and the beach scenes in particular, look quite incredible. The indoor scenes also look pleasingly fluid. Edge-enhancement is not an issue of concern. I did not see any traces of post-production sharpening or problematic noise corrections to report in this review. There are absolutely no stability issues either. Indeed, this is a very solid high-definition transfer that does full justice to Guillaume Canet's excellent film. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" Blu-ray disc. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free PS3 or SA in order to access its content).

Little White Lies Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one audio track on this Blu-ray disc: French DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. For the record, Lionsgate Films-UK have provided optional English subtitles for the main feature. When turned on, they appear inside the image frame.

I can only echo the comments I left in our review for the French Blu-ray release of Little White Lies - the film has a cracking soundtrack that gets a tremendous boost from the solid loseless track (listen to the boat sequence with Creedence Clearwater Revival's Fortunate Son). This is not to say that the French DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track will test the muscles of your audio system, but the mixing and wide range of nuanced dynamics truly transform the entire film, and obviously how one reacts to everything that takes place on the screen. In other words, it compliments perfectly the excellent visuals. For the record, the dialog is crisp, clean, stable, and very easy to follow. The English translation is very good.

Little White Lies Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Making of - a standard featurette containing raw footage from the shooting of the film in the south of France and comments from various cast and crew members. In French, with optional English subtitles. (26 min, PAL).

• Gag Reel - a collection of hilarious scenes. In French, with optional English subtitles. (6 min, PAL).

• Deleted Scenes - fourteen extended and deleted scenes, with optional commentary by director Guillaume Canet. In French, with optional English subtitles.(55 min, PAL).

• Summer Holidays - extra footage showing cast and crew members having plenty of fun during the shooting of the film. In French, with optional English subtitles. (32 min, PAL).

• Surf Sequence - raw footage from the shooting of the surf sequence seen in the film. In French, with optional English subtitles. (5 min, PAL).

Little White Lies Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

This is a Blu-ray release done right. Lionsgate Films have essentially ported the excellent high-definition transfer and loseless track from EuropaCorp's Blu-ray release of Guillaume Canet's Little White Lies, and subtitled all of the supplemental features. There is nothing more one could ask for. Buy with confidence, folks. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.