2 Days In Paris
- Film Worth:$12.00
- FILMINK rates movies out of $20 - the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Julie Delpy's first, non-experimental feature puts her in all the hot seats: writer, director, editor,...
Julie Delpy's first, non-experimental feature puts her in all the hot seats: writer, director, editor, composer, producer and lead actress. It's a potential recipe for disaster, yet 2 Days In Paris is the kind of film that Woody Allen could have made with, say, a young Catherine Deneuve. It's a non-stop talk-fest featuring twitchy New Yorker Jack (Adam Goldberg) and his girlfriend Marion (Delpy). They're on holiday in Europe and have dropped in on Marion's parents in Paris for a few days.
Where this could have become an exercise in ego, Delpy has created a biting comedy that for all its laugh-out-loud moments (and there are many), engages the audience with its intimacy. Leading the charge are Albert Delpy and Marie Pillet, Delpy's real life parents and veteran French actors, who are cast as Marion's parents. They bitch and fight and curse as Jack is embraced and vilified in turn by his extended family. "With such a weird face," says Marion's smiling mother, "he'd better be smart."
There's an echo of Linklater's Before Sunrise/Before Sunset, but in broadening the narrative and character base, 2 Days In Paris offers much more. Foremost in the supporting cast of characters are a string of Marion's ex-lovers, with resultant explosive jealousy, leading Jack to declare that her "temper" is an "impulse control disorder that requires medication!" Although the story drifts and the extended and unnecessary use of wobbly-cam becomes irritating, 2 Days In Paris is a joyous meditation on relationships: between friends, family, couples, countries and cultures. "You lead the way in rude," says Jack of the French. Like the Woody Allen of old, Delpy has taken a microscope to her own city, and found it funny, flawed, wonderful and wildly entertaining.
