| 2 DAYS IN PARIS |
 2007 - France / Germany Director: Julie Delpy
- Reviewed by Linda
Jack and Marion are a New York-based couple that are swinging by Paris for a couple days after a rather unromatic and disappointing time in Venice. Staying with Marion's parents (played by Delpy's real-life parents) proves to be a little too cozy and overwhelming, at least for Jack. He is extremely patient in his world of incomprehension as the family's French flies over his head in a constant din, despite his feeble and drowned-out attempts to communicate. If you've ever been the only non-fluent speaker in a room busting with conversation, you can understand how quickly wearying this is for him. It doesn't help that while Jack and Marion are strolling down the street, she seems to run into one ex-boyfriend and then another and another. Hmm. He knew that she had previous relationships in France, but with so many different men? And they all seem so... friendly! 2 Days in Paris is about exactly that. There is no central plot line other than the constant cultural confusion and fatigue on Jack's side, and the explosive defensiveness on Marion's side. It is all talk talk talk. But it is really quite funny, if you can handle that sort of thing (yes, it is Woody Allen-esque, but without the annoying factor of Woody Allen himself being anywhere near the proceedings). Initially Jack is extremely annoying and unbearable, and Marion is sympathetic. But slowly the dynamics shift as Marion becomes slowly unhinged in her hometown, and Jack starts backpedalling as he begins to see new sides of his girlfriend's past. In other words, the characters and their relationship are refreshingly complex. All the talk could have quickly become exhausting, but at a tidy 93 minutes, the characters don't wear out their welcome. There is no perfect ending, but there is an optimism that this neurotic couple might pull themselves together... at least for the flight home. |
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I have to give writer/director/composer/actress Julie Delpy a heck of a lot of credit for creating the character of Jack (Adam Goldberg). He is the first American-in-Paris character I've seen in a long time that doesn't make a complete ass-wipe of himself just by inherent nature of his US citizenship. Jack is by nature picky, jealous, and yes, neurotic, but heck, he at least knows a few words in French and seems to be earnestly trying to converse when a local stumbles through communication in Franglais. Sure, Jack orders rather furiously and impatiently at a Euro fast food restaurant, and complains about the small size of French condoms (he's a big American, har har), but he is smart enough to know that he is probably being an ass when his French expat girlfriend Marion (Delpy) calls him on it.
