That was an excellent one.

Absolutely Fantastic

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

According to the description and critical reviews, one would think that "My Piece of the Pie" is about class issues, and how a single mother (France), dropped from the payroll because her company in Dunkirk has been wrecked by financial manipulation in high places, fights back.Most of the movie is a set-up for the hasty and unpleasant conclusion. This set-up is very well done (therefore 3 stars), and one has expectations for a satisfactory resolution. The heroine seeks temporary employment as a housekeeper in Paris, and near the conclusion discovers that her wealthy and self-centered employer (Steve) not only has taken advantage of her sexually, but was actually one of the financial wizards responsible for destroying the Dunkirk company she worked for originally.At this point, the tale goes downhill very fast and crashes at the bottom.The way heroine France fights back is to impulsively kidnap Steve's adorable son Alban, who has been entrusted to her care. Furthermore, when Steve arrives with police to rescue the son, she and other Dunkirk workers resist and physically assault the young financier. Not only does she break the law, but her former co-workers will certainly be in legal hot water as well. Why would they become involved? Kidnapping children, whatever the rationale, is a particularly heinous crime. The darkness of this ending eclipses any lessons about class conflict or capitalist predation, and deflects attention from Steve and his questionable antics. In my opinion, this plot needs major rework on its conclusion to merit film critic Amy Taubin's curious rating as "Brilliant Social Satire".

Karin Viard is a major star, and Lellouche comes across well too in this social comedy, which is not really a satire. Viard is a girl of the soil who worked in a solid factory all her life, only to have it ruined by resurgent China and the container business. She tries to kill herself, and her three daughters and sister rally round her until she decides to try her luck in Paris, at a school for cleaners where she pretends to be foreign. She ends up working for a complete tosser, in fact the stock speculator who destroyed her factory without giving a thought to the workers. It takes her a long time to find out, and when she does, she is in bed with the jerk and they've just had tremendous sex, something he of course jokes about on the phone, overheard by her. When his toddler son disappears she has the idea of kidnapping him off to Dunkerque to get the tosser over there and face the music. Both actors perform extremely well and the film sweeps you away with the goodness of "France" and the cynical wickedness of "Steve". Thoroughly recommended.

This movie starts out as a pleasant French romantic/comedy along the lines of "Pretty Woman" and "Maid in Manhattan" and you're lead to believe the villain will redeem himself and the heroine will win her man,much like Julia Roberts did with Richard Gere. It doesn't end up so,leaving one with a very disquieting feeling at the end as if the rug has been pulled out from under you.Maybe this is supposed to reflect the way the real world works,but after the wonderful initial set up,in the end you do feel like you've been set up.It inevitably seems under written with a need for a final chapter.Until it shifts gears though, it works,and you feel like you're in for another classic French romance.Even up to the very end you feel like it will shift back to it's light comedy form and everybody ends up happy,(American films do it all the time)but it steers it's way down a darker path of questionable value. I would still recommend this film just for the performance of Karin Viard,who plays France.

Apologies for the short review but I felt I needed to react to the few other reviews.I really loved the movie and recognised Klapish's style straight away. The actors act just right and give a really good depth to the characters. The dialogues are excellent and especially the conversations at the boring drinks with other financiers/traders were as if they were taken from my own experience! My only criticism, SPOILER, is that I thought the end was a bit too fast and a bit too much of a shortcut. I am not sure if it is laziness but a few more minutes would have been good.That said the fact I didn't want it to end just shows how enjoyable this movie is!