Movie review - 2 Days in Paris

Ahhh, Paris. Kim, Lydia and I went to go watch this the fateful night a waiter decided to have a meltdown. Despite being that putting me in a bit of a cranky mood and the movie featuring some of the most irritating people I've watched on film for a long time, I found myself highly enjoying them bicker their way across 2 Days in Paris.

Marion (Julie Delpy, the writer, directed, producer and according to Kim, my doppelganger) and Jack (Adam Goldberg) are on a European trip to rekindle their relationship and decide to stay two nights in Paris with Marion's parents before heading back to the US. Over the course of the two days they have culture clashes, personal clashes, and physical clashes. That and catching up with a lot of Marion's ex-boyfriends.

Despite the romantic premise or two days in the city of lurve, this is not a very romantic picture. We basically see Marion and Jack's relationship unravelled as they bicker across Paris. And not even just with each other - with Marion's parents and sister, her exes, taxi drivers and even randoms on the street. This does not show them in the best light. Jack appears as an paranoid hypochondriac whinger while Marion seems to be a chronic liar with anger management issues. That said, their insecurities and behaviours are very real - Jack is paranoid and whines because he doesn't speak the language and often can't comprehend what's going on around him, Marion lies because she doesn't want to hurt his feelings or believes that her arguments with various people are right.

And then there are the supporting characters/randoms!!! It's like every french person on the street was a pretentious arty type who was obsessed with and have a multitude of opinions on sex and plenty happy to share it with anyone. Taxi drivers are racists or perverts, American tourists are xenophobes obsessed with tracing the DaVinci Code or seeing Jim Morrison's grave, parents solely exist to humiliate their children...blah it just goes on.

But you know, some of it is quite funny. Other annoyances aside, we three agreed that it's quite a good introspective look at modern day love and relationships. I usually find voice overs whereby the action is narrated by one of participants qutie trite, but in this case Delpy's observations and explanations seemed sincere and true to anyone who's been in the same situation. That's probably the main redeeming feature.

The film doesn't break any new barriers, but it's quite cute and enjoyable.
7/10