It’s been a long time since I read Madame Bovary, so I can’t say for sure if any of the parallels between Gustave Flaubert’s classic novel are elegantly rendered into Gemma Bovery, but perhaps it doesn’t matter so much.

Fabrice Luchini plays Martin Joubert, a former editor (and lover of great literature) who has returned to Normandy from Paris to take over his father’s bakery. When Londoners move next door – Gemma Bovery (Gemma Arterton) and her husband Charlie (Jason Flemyng) – Jobert’s imagination runs wild as he becomes infatuated with the beautiful, young woman he cannot help but see as an incarnation of the tragic, literary heroine Emma Bovary.

This is a slight, sexy comedy that is more fun than I expected it to be but not terribly memorable after consumed. Let’s just say, it’s not as hearty as the bread baked by our leading character, but it will keep you from going hungry. It’s a pretty film to watch because of the locations, too.