Julie Delpy has proven herself quite well in this past year’s offering, 2 Days in Paris. Not only does she star in it, it’s her directorial debut. But that’s not all, she also wrote it, edited it, and composed music for it. She probably did a few other things as well, like recruiting her parents to play as her parents in the movie. If the movie wasn’t anything worth watching, none of this would be very impressive. But since it’s a more-than-halfway-decent flick, it’s quite an admirable feat.
Delpy takes a cue from the tone that was set in Before Sunrise and Before Sunset. But where I thought those movies got lost in lengthy dialogue that didn’t really go anywhere and didn’t really amount to anything, Delpy instead chooses to do something with her movie. (That may be a harsh statement about two movies that were quite critically acclaimed, but personally, I’m still trying to figure out why they were so praised.)
Delpy is a Parisian who lives in New York, coming off of a Venice vacation with her American boyfriend and staying with her parents in Paris for 2 days. Voila.
The dialogue here is still as down-to-earth as those mentioned predecessors, and still with plenty of references to politics and art and the world. But here it’s quite funny and entertaining. The chemistry between Delpy and Adam Goldberg is enjoyable.
With this story, you get the inner workings of a relationship, the experience of culture shock, and the visit of the odd parents all in one shot. In each arena, the theme is explored with a rude–or perhaps honest is a more palatable word–sense of reality. Adam Goldberg is left all alone to fend for himself creating a comedic version of Lost in Translation. His facial expressions alone have almost a slapstick quality to them. The dynamic interaction of French and American is probably what this film does best.
While Delpy might tell her audience more than enough in her periodic narrations, many of these moments create beautiful, artistically creative scenes that round out the movie quite nicely.
Somewhere along the way, this movie failed to be a blockbuster hit or an admired art-house offering. But somewhere in the middle it became a fun story and a valiant showing of Delpy’s many talents, and that’s a fine place to be.
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