Gerard Depardieu is brilliantly cast as provincial dance hall singer Alain Moreau in The Singer; a huge hit across the Channel. While crooning through his way through various classics at a club one night, Alain meets beautiful, troubled Marion (Cecile de France). When they fall into bed that night, a tentative, uneasy relationship starts to unfold, despite Marion's initial reluctance. This is a subtle, always engaging love story with two brilliant performances at its heart.

After 20 years crooning in local clubs, karaoke is threatening to cause Alain's work to dry up. But he soldiers on, managed by his ex-wife Michele (Christine Citti), and playing to crowds of divorcees and fortysomethings who come to dance to old school hits. Marion, a partner in an estate agency and attempting to rebuild a life with her son after a messy divorce, quickly comes to regret sleeping with Alain. But as he pursues her - they search for a new house for him - a strange, unspoken affection develops.

"DEPARDIEU EXCELS AS ALAIN"

The Singer could have been as cheesy as one of Alain's songs; but this movie steadfastly refuses cliché and sentimentality, and instead we get an understated and truthful depiction of two people searching for dignity and fulfilment amid their averagely broken lives. Depardieu excels as Alain, bringing a depth and humanity to the role that ensures - with the help of a great screenplay - that he is always fully human, and never the drink-sodden, self-pitying club singer of a thousand comic sketches. What really shines through, though, is the on-screen chemistry between Depardieu and France; the sooner they star opposite each other again, the better.

The Singer is out in the UK on 28th September 2007.