Cartier rocks Valentine's Day with "The Proposal," a six-minute meditation on modern romance directed by Sean Ellis, whose 2006 short film Cashback was nominated for an Oscar.
Here, we meet three couples in Paris, and their stories, to some extent, intertwine—but not too much. One tale is set in the Rodin Museum (the Thinker looks thoroughly stumped by the wacky ways of love), and another at the airport (a husband and wife for some vague reason must part for six months). The third—and, in my view, best—story finds a twentysomething Romeo huffing and puffing as he dashes up an office building's stairs in pursuit of his beloved, who wisely took the elevator.
Man, these attractive, young, white and apparently affluent heterosexuals are so mixed up! Can ice from Cartier sooth their troubled hearts?
The film works best in its full six-minute, three-story format, but you can also watch each two-minute tale separately, and visit Cartier's site to check out the products shown on screen. Ain't love grand?
Snark aside, "The Proposal" is a cut above, with appealing performances and deft storytelling. Of course, this is ultimately branded content, and as such it shines. The film, like the baubles it promotes, is a consumer fantasy designed to bewitch and beguile. Which, for the most part, it does. So I'm willing to forgive its flaws.