Priceless ****

The French comedy-drama "Priceless" ("Hors de prix") from writer/director Pierre Salvadori is a beautiful gem of a movie in a platinum setting (Biarritz and Monaco). Audry Tautou, famous as "Amélie" (2001), but who failed to connect with English audiences as Sophie Neveu in "The DaVinci Code" (2006), is here completely in her element in this very French, very sophisticated tale of a gold digger who gets entangled with a hotel employee (Gad Elmaleh) she mistakes for a wealthy target.

Elmaleh, who was so refreshingly believable in "The Valet" (2006), here plays a similarly smitten lover who is powerless against his infatuation with Tautou, even when she continues to drain his bank account. In a timely coincidence, Elmaleh's character Jean becomes the paid companion of a wealthy older woman, and he and Irène (Tautou) compete in their accumulation of loot. Jean plays this game only to continue to be near his love, and she gradually gets to know this incredibly sincere suitor.

The settings are closely observed and richly five-star hotel swank. The characterizations ring true, and the story is an entertaining variation on an old theme. If you don't want to wait for the English remake, see it now.

Rated PG-13. 104 minutes. Pierre Salvadori - Director / Writer (writer), Benoît Graffin - Writer (writer), Philippe Martin - Producer, Gilles Henry - Cinematographer, Camille Bazbaz - Composer, Isabelle Devinck - Editor. Distributed in the U.S. by Samuel Goldwyn Films. In French with English subtitles.

Principal actors: Gad Elmaleh, Audrey Tautou, Marie-Christine Adam, Vernon Dobtcheff, Jacques Spiesser, and Annelise Hesme.