Gaby Baby Doll

Gaby is neurotic, self-centered and incapable of sleeping alone. When she and her boyfriend decamp to the Burgundy countryside (at the suggestion of Gaby’s therapist), he quickly catches on to the fact that Gaby keeps him around less for the romance and more as a sleep aide. When he abandons her, Gaby is determined to demonstrate her love by remaining on her own in the cavernous house, but proves unable to endure such solitude. She starts by hijacking someone’s dog, proceeds to cozy up to strangers in the local bar, and eventually invades the shack of Nicolas (Benjamin Biolay), a solitary groundskeeper for an abandoned chateau who has fashioned his life to avoid all human companionship. Sophie Letournour’s film cheerfully skirts meet-cute romantic comedy tropes with laid-back ease, laying in some fairy-tale tones at the same time. Isabelle Huppert’s daughter, Lolita Chammah (Farewell, My Queen), gives a charmingly offbeat performance as the equally exasperating and endearing Gaby.