Saturday afternoon and PRICELESS

Saturday afternoon…I am at home, had my lunch quite late, then off to my usual 30 min flip through session of TV channels – just to see what to not watch. That’s right; I am one of those people who pick up remote to never settle on a particular channel unless I am really convinced that something worth is there to hold on to; for few minutes or may be few hours sometimes. Bizarre it may sound, but I am not an anxious freak; it’s just a habit or if you can trust on my intuitive logic- “ It’s a constant desire to find the best channel, or in other words to find THE ONE ”. But that’s not the point I wanted to bring up here. Generally, my hunger for a suitable matinee channel ends 30 minutes post lunch as I obey my sleep goddess and follow her without any conflict after that.
However, today was a little different and I got two good movies to watch one after another. A rare treat you can get from your idiot box when it is occasionally permitted to speak. First one was on HBO, a typical “Bourne” action thriller type movie, which I always enjoy; second one, I stopped by accidentally. Accidentally, because HBO and star movies are two of my resting points on remote and it was on none of them. As I was flipping through channels again- right after the first movie, I find this French channel showing a movie with English subtitle. Oh…btw, I haven’t mentioned that I used to watch a lot of movies in different languages with English subtitles. In-fact some of the Korean movies are all time favorite romantic movies and I know their stories have been copied in our Bollywood movies too.
So, intrigued by my instinct and past experience I stayed on this particular French channel. Nevertheless to say I wasn’t disappointed at the end.
The movie name was PRICELESS (released in 2006). The story was about Irène and Jean and their life changing moments in luxury hotels of France. Irène first meets Jean in a hotel where he works as a bartender. When her white-haired sugar daddy falls asleep in their suite the night of her birthday, she steals down to the bar where Jean is napping and mistakes him for a rich playboy. Jean, once awakened, gets instantly smitten tries to pretend the fake identity; they get drunk together and spend a night in the hotel’s conveniently unoccupied royal suite.
Irene later finds out about Jean's reality and dumps him. Jean follows her to apologize, convinces her a lot but she bankrupts him on a shopping spree to take revenge. Just when Jean was to be handed over to police for not able to clear the bills, a wealthy older widow who eyes him in the hotel lobby earlier, rescues him and keeps him as her lover cum assistant.
Eventually Irène realizes that she and Jean are playing the same game - trading sexual favours for gifts. While Irene does it for living, Jean was forced to do this, because of the circumstances Irene created. Jean manages to stay in same hotel where Irene is staying. Irene sees him. This makes Irene feel happy that Jean too is in the same condition.
While Irene was materialistic by choice, Jean was doing all of it just to have few moments with her, In the hope that one day she will forgive him and would love him. Instead of what turn life has taken after meeting Irene, Jean’s only motive was to see her happy. At last Irene realizes what she wants is a prince by heart, not by wealth. Jean's selfish and pure love wins her over.
Though romantic, it was a bit different from usual Hollywood romantic genre movies. The script was quite unique and bold. Probably, that’s the reason it is rated PG-13. I was a bit apprehensive in the beginning but hanged in for a while and loved it. To sum it up- a romantic movie with effervescence, new and experimental storyline, near real portrayal of the extravagant lifestyles in plush hotels of France and good performances.