(NOTE: "She Gets What She Wants" was originally titled "Slap Her, She's French" and was scheduled for a summer 2002 theatrical
release. It was screened for critics about a month early, then pushed back to another date, and then another, and more and more, all because the distributor, The Premiere Group, was having financial troubles. By the time they solved them, they gave up on releasing the film theatrically and sold it to TV, where it premiered on ABC Family under the terrible title "She Gets What She Wants." That's how it was released on DVD, too. This is the review I wrote in 2002, after the press screening. I don't know if the movie was changed at all thereafter.) "Slap Her, She's French" is a dark comedy where we like the characters only to the extent that we can laugh at them. The moment we are asked to feel compassion for any of these connivers and manipulators, we rebel, because such attempts go against the reason they were created in the first place. Fortunately, this very funny comedy, directed by Melanie Mayron, only occasionally lapses into Redeeming Qualities Mode, remaining instead in the realm of brightly lit farce and uproarious mayhem.
To read the rest of this review, click on the relevant link below.