2 Days of Discomfort
2 Days in Paris is a sometimes interesting, artsy romantic comedy by Julie Delpy – who writes, edits, produces, directs and scores the film.
The film centres on two days in the uneasy relationship between the complex Marion (Delpy), a Paris-born photographer, and her neurotic New York boyfriend Jack (Adam Goldberg), who Marion has brought to Paris to meet her chaotic family, after a disastrous two days in Venice.
The expected culture clashes ensue, as well as the realisation that perhaps these two don’t know each other as well as they thought.
The film attempts realism with the sort of ‘spontaneous, improvised’ dialogue that, if not executed well, can just irritate or appear wholly unrealistic. In this case sometimes both.
There are a few funny moments, mainly centred on Jack’s lack of French language skills fuelling his already insecure nature. But the problem is that it is very difficult to actually like any of the characters, and so it’s also very hard to care what actually happens to them. Marion’s family all make fun of Jack in French in a rather nasty and un-clever way.
You also don’t sense any chemistry between Jack and Marion (crucial for this type of movie), except perhaps in the final scenes, and little connection between Marion’s family despite the actors being Delpy’s real parents!
There is just too much about this movie that is ‘bitsy’ and self-conscious, including often-clumsy editing and an inconsistency of style (where did the narration disappear to?), as well as Delpy’s own performance. Perhaps a symptom of taking on too much.
Themes go nowhere, such as Marion’s rare eye condition, which is the subject of an interesting visual in the beginning. I was unsure whether Marion removing her unattractive glasses and putting on her contact lenses was an attempt at indicating that her character can now ‘see’ her relationship more clearly. I hope not.
The funniest part of the movie is when Jack sends an American Da Vinci Code tour group in the direction of the Louvre, with no idea of where it is himself, just so he can improve his position in the taxi queue. Goldberg’s is certainly the better acting performance, even if not ground-breaking.
The opening and final scenes are quite good, with some interesting things along the way, but there are many examples of the genre that are so much better than this one – Annie Hall is an obvious one. Is it a coincidence that Delpy’s character is even wearing Woody Allen-esque glasses?
2 Days in Paris is available on DVD in the UK now.
See a trailer for the film below: