Paris, Je T'Aime

As you might expect of a movie featuring eighteen different short films, Paris, Je T'Aime is incredibly uneven. While one segment can be moving or beautiful, the next could be a little lacking in feeling or direction. The short films, seamlessly connected to each other by breathtaking images of The City of Lights, are all testaments to both one of the most sensational cities in the world and to love itself. It'd be impossible to individually critique each section, so instead I'll just talk about some of my favourite parts.

Walter Salles' "Loin du 16ième" has to be one of the shortest portions of the film, but it's also one of the most effective. Catalina Sandino Moreno plays a young nanny who is forced to put her baby into daycare while she works. Moreno astonishes at how much emotion she can milk from simple dialogue, without ever even seeming like she's ACTING. When she repeats the lullaby (one that she just sang to her own child) to the baby she's looking after, you can instantly feel her all the sadness in her world.

Fanny Ardant and Bob Hoskins get what are possibly the only laugh-out-loud moments of the movie, playing an old married showbiz couple looking to spice up their relationship in "Pigalle". The director, Richard LaGravenese (Freedom Writers), really just lets the movie coast on the lead performances but who cares when the actors are as charming and funny as these two? It's a hilarious and bittersweet little duet.

But the real jewel in the crown is the film's final portion, Alexander Payne's "Le 14ième Arrondissement". Margo Martindale, best known as Hilary Swank's spiteful hillbilly momma in Million Dollar Baby, deserves some sort of special acting prize for her sad-sack portrayal of a lonely American tourist caught up in the throes of Parisian life. With her affectionate butchering of the French language and sincere wonderment about how great life is, she really sums up the spirit of the movie's intent beautifully.

In contrast to those, there are a couple of clunkers though. Gus Van Sant's Le Marais, the sole gay-themed film of the bunch, is all superficial dialogue and bad acting, and the leads have absolutely no chemistry. Similarly, Christopher Doyle's Porte de Choisy is all style, no substance. Actually, to put it simply, it just doesn't make a lick of sense. I believe it had something to do with the Asian hair product business. Or maybe the Asian-French immigrant lifestyle. Or old people finding love with younger people. I really don't know.

So admittedly, it's a little hard to call Paris, Je T'Aime an entire success because, as the old proverb says "a chain is only as strong as its weakest link". But nevertheless, I gotta recommend it. It's charming and elegant and well worth a look.

Paris, Je T'Aime: B (B+?)