2 Days In Paris

The Age

Thursday June 26, 2008

Philippa Hawker

2 Days in Paris

Hopscotch, 96 mins, MA,

comedy, 2007

3/5

Funny, sharp, good-natured, with moments of comic edginess, 2 Days in Paris explores a relationship under pressure when it moves out of its comfort zone. Julie Delpy - director, writer, producer, editor and star, who also contributed music to the soundtrack - plays an ebullient young French woman who brings her American boyfriend (Adam Goldberg) to Paris for a flying visit. He meets not only her parents (Delpy has cast her own father and mother) but also some of her old lovers, and comes face to face with jealousies, embarrassment, linguistic challenges and the possibility that as a couple they are doomed. There is a sense of place to the movie but its vision of Paris is appealingly quotidian rather than romanticised. The film is grounded in low-budget simplicity but there is a sense of freedom for both leads: and her mixture of playfulness and combativeness works well against his grouchy stubbornness. At first, Goldberg seems like a tetchy presence but his crankiness, his refusal to be charmed, becomes an almost endearing trait, while Delpy never lets her vivacious, energetic character off the moral hook.

DVD extras include:

deleted scenes with commentary