Movie Log: 2 Days in Paris

Julie Delpy wrote, directed, produced, edited, starred in, composed music for and sang the end-title theme for 2 Days in Paris. (I didn't realize all of that until I was watching the end credits, so I'll mention it up front.) I guess it could be called a vanity project, but her co-star, Adam Goldberg, arguably is the center of the movie.

They play a couple -- Marion and Jack -- who are stopping in Paris on their way back to New York after a semi-disastrous Italian vacation. He's a Woody Allen-ish interior decorator, though substantially more masculine than that makes him sound. And she's a photographer who's originally from Paris. They've been together two years, and know each other pretty well. But Jack doesn't speak any French, which does not endear him to Marion's parents (who they're staying upstairs from). And they run into more of Marion's ex-lovers than Jack is comfortable with.

The trailer -- and a lifetime of seeing movies -- will lead lead the viewer to expect a very familiar plot, in which Jack becomes insanely jealous for no good reason, and, finally, learns the errors of his ways and embraces the freedom and joie de vie of French culture (or, alternatively, can't manage to change, so Marion is better off without him). This is not what actually happens in 2 Days in Paris; it's a more specific and particular story than that.

Jack is more than a bit of an ass, but Marion has her own flaws -- and Jack may have reason to be suspicious. (There's one scene, at a party, where Marion's reaction is either real and frightening or amazingly calculated to hide infidelity -- and there's no easy way to tell which is true.) I found 2 Days in Paris to be very successful, and surprisingly assured for a nearly one-woman show. Delpy's Marion is neither a perfect saint nor a histrionic award-bait role, and, from her credits on 2 Days, you'd expect one or the other. Goldberg's Jack starts off more of a one-note character, and stays in annoyed American mode most of the way through (not not without reason -- a lot of the movie takes place as people rudely talk around him in French) -- but he, too, has some depth.

Since it doesn't go where you'd expect it to, 2 Days sometimes feels off-balance, but, all in all, it's worth seeing if you like films about relationships.