Into the cutthroat “Iron Chef”-like competition now going on in movie theaters — as directors and actors dish up the best they have for film lovers to gorge upon with awards season in full swing — we get a sweet little bonbon from French director Jean-Pierre Ameris.

“Romantics Anonymous” is a charmingly brief visit into a world of love and the fear of love, of chances missed and risks taken, with nothing more on the line than the happiness of its two main characters.

Benoit Poelvoorde and Isabelle Carre play Jean-Rene and Angelique, two shy, lonely people who are destined for one another. The actors breathe life into their winsome characters with the lightest of comic touches, keeping our sympathy even as we laugh at their seeming foolishness.

We learn about Angelique through her “romantics anonymous” support group, in which she describes her fear of attention, and the emotional overreaction that results. (She faints a lot.)

Jean-Rene tells his tale to a therapist, of how he loves women — by which he means, not physically, but genuinely. He loves their conversation, their perfume, their lotions, their company. He just can’t talk to them or touch them or ask them out. (He sweats a lot.)

Only fate can bring these two together, and it comes in the form of chocolate. Angelique is a talented chocolatier, now jobless after her employer’s death, who gathers enough courage to apply for work at Jean-Rene’s company, the Chocolate Mill.

He hires her on the spot, mostly so he doesn’t have to interview anyone else, but as a salesperson rather than in the kitchen.

Awkwardness ensues as, under assignment from his shrink, Jean-Rene asks Angelique to dinner. You only have to have been stuck at the wrong dinner party once to sympathize, as Angelique struggles, using cue cards, to make conversation:

“So, what’s your take on the Middle East?” she asks. “No clue,” he answers.

“Do you follow the Champions League?” she inquires. “Champions of what?” he responds. (She isn’t quite sure.)

The way they finally connect — and disconnect and reconnect — is plain old, familiar movie magic of the most basic kind, but there’s a reason that we like to see rabbits pulled out of hats. You want someone to root for, and seeing these two finally shake off the self-imposed chains that hold them back is one of those happy cinematic pleasures.

Early on, Jean-Rene tells how his father’s favorite expression (“He said it all the time”) was, “Let’s hope nothing happens to us.”

“Romantics Anonymous” then is the story of two cautious people who, because they have found one another, decide to make something happen. It is a sweet story about love and life that, in their case, really is a lot like a box of chocolates.

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ROMANTICS ANONYMOUS

3 stars

STARRING: Benoit Poelvoorde, Isabelle Carre

DIRECTOR: Jean-Pierre Ameris

RUNNING TIME: 80 minutes

RATING: Not rated; PG equivalent for one mild bedroom scene. In French with English subtitles.

THE LOWDOWN: Two painfully shy people find one another through their love of chocolate, and romance takes over.

mmiller@buffnews.comnull