Mr. Blake at Your Service!: Gilles Legardinier’s gentle film, an adaptation of his own novel, follows a British businessman who moves to a French chateau following the passing of his wife. The place holds a special meaning to him, but the only way to make it happen is to pretend he is the new butler of the place. The light dramedy comes from his uneasy-at-first cohabitation with a ragtag group of mildly broken characters; everything is feel-good but skin-deep, and the film never properly shows (but tells the concept) of his presence there. The performances are quietly effective but generally unremarkable: John Malkovich plays his characters in a very unusual (for him) key, and it works; Fanny Ardant, as the manor’s lady, is properly dignified and distant; Émilie Dequenne plays the house’s maid. The location where most of the action takes place, a country manor, is charming and lovely, well-decorated by production designer Herald Najar. Director of photography Stéphane Le Parc captures it all with a mobile and elegant camera, bathing it all in beautiful light. Editor Chrystel Alépée gives the film a pleasurable pace.