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I live on the ocean, write women's fiction, love to read so much that it's an addiction rather than a hobby (I read an average of a book a day). I live on the wet west coast so it's a good thing that I like to walk in the rain.

Monday, October 01, 2007

2 Days in Paris



Did you see Before Sunrise and Before Sunset - the two Julie Delpy movies with Ethan Hawke? I think they were out ten years apart and the stories (same characters, similar settings) take place ten years apart. They're the kind of movies that are all about conversation, not at all about action, so you'll either love them or you won't. Julie Delpy wrote the second of these movies - Before Sunset - before going on to write and direct 2 Days in Paris.



2 Days in Paris is definitely a companion piece to the other movies. Once again, it's a movie about conversation - some in English, some in French, some in gestures as opposed to words. It's funny and smart and catches the nuances of the main characters' relationship in a way you don't often see in North American movies.



Julie's character, Marion, and her American boyfriend, Jack, who speaks almost no French (played by Adam Goldberg) return to Paris from a vacation in Venice. Marion owns an apartment upstairs from her very eccentric parents and has many old friends (mostly men) in Paris.



The French characters are great, eccentric taxi drivers, fathers and mothers, boyfriends, girlfriends, sisters. They're all funny and you'll find yourself waiting for the next one of these eccentrics to appear on screen.



Give yourself a treat. The first ten minutes may not work for you, but if you give it time, you'll find yourself going home with a sore throat from laughing. You'll find yourself repeating the jokes to whoever went to the movie with you and you'll probably remember the jokes for years. I know I will, just like I remember the jokes from Best in Show and The Princess Bride.



It's a movie worth seeing, especially if you enjoyed Before Sunrise and Before Sunset.



Kate

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