François is a middle-aged antique dealer. He has a stylish apartment and a fabulous life, but at a dinner with a group he considers his dearest acquaintances, he is blindsided by the revelation that none of them actually likes him. He's arrogant, self-centered and harsh, and they don't believe he knows the meaning of friendship. His business partner Catherine makes him a bet: if he can produce his best friend, she will let him keep the massive Greek vase he acquired that afternoon on the company tab. If not, it's hers. Having accepted the wager, François naively tears through his address book, trying to shoehorn an increasingly unlikely series of contacts into the all-important role. Moving through Paris, he keeps encountering a trivia-spouting, big-hearted cabbie named Bruno. Bruno's chatty, lowbrow ways grate against François' designer temperament, but he covets the other man's easy way with people. He convinces Bruno to teach him how to make friends and sets about learning the "Three S" rule: being sociable, smiling and sincere--although, for him, they don't come easy. Ultimately, François' victory will depend on Bruno's naiveté in playing along, but what's the cost of cheating at friendship? - skip ad - Genres: Art/Foreign and Comedy Running Time: 1 hr. 34 min. Release Date: July 13th 2007 (limited) MPAA Rating: PG-13 for some strong language. Distributor: IFC Films Cast And Credits Starring: Daniel Auteuil, Julie Gayet, Dany Boon, Julie Durand, Jacques Mathou Directed by: Patrice Leconte Produced by: Marc Missonnier, Olivier Delbosc

François Coste is a Paris antique dealer with a handsome gallery, an elegant apartment, a loyal business partner, a lover and a semi- estranged daughter. What he lacks — and what it turns out he needs most — is a friend. His personal relations are all organized around business or obligation, his manner is gracious but distant, and he finds himself, in middle age, lacking the kind of sustaining, easy connection with another person that can make life genuinely fulfilling.

Such, at any rate, is the premise of “My Best Friend,” a sweet comic fable directed by Patrice Leconte. François is played by Daniel Auteuil, one of the most effortlessly ingratiating of French actors and also one of the best at portraying outwardly well-adjusted men who are also loners and misfits. François’s alienation is hardly as profound as that experienced by, for instance, the television host Mr. Auteuil played in Michael Haneke’s “Caché,” but you nonetheless feel his isolation and hurt.

Whether this condition is entirely believable, either as a social or a psychological phenomenon, is another matter. But it’s somewhat beside the point. “My Best Friend” is a comforting, sentimental tale of a kind that would be insufferably maudlin if made in Hollywood and unbearably affectless if it showed up at Sundance. Somehow it’s easier to take in French.

This is partly because Mr. Leconte situates his moral fantasy in a specific and well-observed world. François has an interesting, obdurate individuality, as does Bruno (Dany Boon), the taxi driver who becomes first his tutor in friendship and then, in fits and starts, his almost-friend. Catherine (Julie Gayet), François’s business partner, has made a bet with him: he must either produce a best friend within 10 days or give up a Greek vase he has impulsively bought at an auction. Without telling him about the bet, François engages Bruno to teach him how to be nicer.

But Bruno is the paradoxical mirror image of his would-be pal. He is friendly — helpful to strangers, chatty with customers, kind to his parents — but also friendless. A trivia buff with dreams of appearing on a television quiz show, he is if anything more of a misfit than François.

Lessons are learned, tears are shed, and Mr. Leconte leans as heavily on montage sequences as any hack purveyor of romantic-comedy clichés. And romantic comedy is, in the end, the genre to which “My Best Friend” belongs. It is about an improbable affection that must surmount various obstacles on the way to a bittersweet consummation, and also, more deeply, about a man’s zigzagging pursuit of the self-knowledge that can come only through the acknowledgment of another. Some of its charm comes from the way it embeds these lofty abstractions in mundane, amusing circumstances. That sounds overly philosophical, I realize, but this is a French movie, after all.

“My Best Friend” is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned) for strong language and mild sexual situations.