On the basis of this, Ludivine Sagnier may be evolving into French cinema’s answer to Miranda Hart. It’s a commercial French picture of the kind that generally doesn’t cross the Channel well: a bit DayGlo, a bit cutesy, a bit fey. You might need a very sweet tooth for this – sweeter than mine anyway. Lou! is an adaptation of a comic-book series, directed by its original creator Julien Neel. Lou herself, played by Lola Lasseron, is a lonely teen who lives with her gawky, awkward single mum, played by Sagnier with unflattering glasses. They have a chaotic flat in the romanticised, cartoonified big city, perennially short on cash, and always terrified at the prospect of a visit from Lola’s stern grandmother, played by Nathalie Baye. Lou dreams about the boy next door, and worries that her mother needs love. The arrival of a nice-looking guy her mother’s age changes everything. Sometimes, when this film retreats into its various fantasy worlds, it looks like a diluted version of a Michel Gondry film. But there isn’t the same level of comedy and invention: the level of sugary silliness is a little too high.
