2 Days in Paris

2 Days in Paris

A French take on the romantic comedy. At times, it is laugh out loud funny, though its frenetic pace and continuous stream of bilingual dialogue left at least one viewer semi-exhausted.

One might imagine this movie as produced in Hollywood. A struggling yet handsome New York writer-type falls in love in Paris, and brings home the girl of his dreams to meet his parents. Much canned laughter would abound through a series of misunderstandings and a combination of obnoxious pets and/or oversized breasts and/or unexpected flatulence jokes. All would eventually be resolved and the mixed-language couple would live happily ever after in their gorgeous Manhattan loft.

Instead this is an independent film written, directed and starring the French actress Julie Delpy. She portrays Marion, a photographer living in New York with her American boyfriend, Jack. She’s brought him to Paris for a short 2-day stay, where he’ll meet her ex-hippie parents, trouble-making sister and a copious number of her ex-boyfriends. Jack is a somewhat typical New York liberal with a quick, sarcastic mouth and a brain full of neuroses. The first scene outside the Paris train station sets the tone for this character. He clears the lineup for a taxi by sending a group of badly dressed, Bush-supporting, Davinci Code - questing American tourists on a mean-spirited wild goose walk into the nether lands of Paris. They’re looking for the Louvre. He gives them the wrong directions and justifies it as an exercise in cultural cleansing.

Ms. Delpy’s real-life ex-boyfriend Adam Goldberg portrays Jack, while her real-life parents assume the corresponding roles. This is either an interesting coincidence, an inspired casting decision, or a mechanism to keep costs down. Perhaps all three. The parents’ acting is either a touch wooden or completely over the top. At times, it seems like they’re on the verge of bursting out laughing. The father especially has a wild time inhabiting his role as an aging womanizer and gallery owner with a fascination for artistic depictions of the male sex organ. The penis does have a starring role in this film, both on-screen and off, acting as a focal point for some humourous pokes at the male ego and an occasional serious swipe at the sexual foibles and preoccupations of our different cultures.

The film succeeds for the most part in entertaining the viewer, while providing some insight into the struggle of a couple who are propelled by circumstance to a more intimate level of trust and understanding. There is a reliance by the director on the use of a voiceover (Marion’s character) to explain the action. This device was unnecessary and annoying, especially during the ending where it robbed the scene of much emotion.