Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

French-Canadian director, writer and star Simon Boisvert (”Guys,
Girls and a Jerk”) presents another realistically engaging assault on the
single twentysomething scene in Montreal. Three barmaids, Isabelle (Elise
Beaumont), Audrey (Diana Lewis), Sonia (Natasha M. Leroux), each relate
to bachelor Alex (Simon Boisvert) in a different way. Alex is engaged to
the possessive Lyne (Caroline Gendron), who wants her man to stop running
around and just stay home to boff her. But Alex is not sure if he wants
to marry Lyne, and angers her by paying more attention to his movie producer
friend Mike (Erwin Weche) than to her. When Mike calls, Alex ignores Lyne’s
sexual advances to join him in their favorite watering hole. New barmaid
Isabelle is a hot young number who attracts Alex, but she goes for Mike
because she prefers arrogant jerks over regular guys. Mike invites the
aspiring actress to be an extra in a short he’s filming, and Alex becomes
her kissing partner in that scene. This encounter gets him to first base,
though Isabelle rejects any further advances with those universal hurtful
lines that there’s no chemistry between them and let’s be friends. But
Isabelle calls Alex back after talking with the other barmaids and the
two go out together. Alex thinks he has at last met the perfect woman and
dumps Lyne, but soon the romance with Isabelle turns cold. She has the
hots for Mike, who finds her immature but wouldn’t mind a one-night stand.
When Isabelle comes over to Mike’s pad expecting to get banged, she’s disappointed
to find two other women there and splits after getting hurt in the same
emotional way she has hurt many men.

The filmmaker takes a cynical look at how these singles interact
and wonders aloud what lessons they have learned from their experiences.
The sexy Sonia offers Simon casual and uncomplicated sex anywhere he wants
it, which might make her the dream girl for many singles. In the opening
scene, she’s doing it with Mike in a bathtub decorated with candles. Audrey
offers Alex friendship, loyalty, and good advise, and at 35 is the most
mature of the three. But the one that gets Alex the hardest and makes his
heart flutter, Isabelle, offers him frustration and aggravation. He’s just
too nice for her and can’t be cool like Mike, whom she would give her bod
to anytime he wanted it. To be with a stud, Isabelle would overlook his
faults.

The film does a nice job setting up these desperate characters trying
to be free spirits but carrying too much baggage to find much more than
momentary sensual pleasures out of life. I think that’s about as far as
you can go with these characters, as Mr. Boisvert nailed them for what
they are without being judgmental. 

Barmaids serves its romantic melodrama straight-up without sentimentality,
in a way that evokes haunting feelings for many singles who have been slapped
around in relationships that left one partner, the weaker one, unbearably
hurt. In the relationships that wanted to carry on beyond sexual pleasure,
there was always one person getting hurt. When the relationships were built
around lust and nothing more, no one seemed to get hurt; but, then again,
no one seemed to be as happy as they made out to be.

Though this hard-edged look at relationships has been done often
enough to seem familiar, there was a refreshingly true quality about this
low-budget production that is worth savoring for whatever it’s worth.