Flutterby™! : 2 Days In Paris

Charlene's sister called us to go listen to a jazz group up in Novato yesterday afternoon. We needed to head up that way for a few things, so we ended up hanging out at Dr. Insomnia's. While we were listening, I thumbed through a copy of the North Bay Bohemian, and saw the ad for 2 Days In Paris.

Charlene and I both believe that Before Sunrise and Before Sunset are up there in the best few films, so when I saw Julie Delpy's name in the ad as writer, director and lead... well... after our errands we ended up at The Rafael.

After a failed attempt at a vacation in Venice, Marion (Julie Delpy), a French photographer living in New York, and Jack (Adam Goldberg), an American, drop into Paris to spend two days visiting her family and old friends. Translation issues magnifying understandings, family histories and old boyfriends ensue.

I wouldn't elevate it to the level of Before Sunrise, I don't necessarily need to see it again soon, but we laughed repeatedly. On coming out of the theater I commented that it felt either like sketch comedy or like a novel that had been compressed into movie form through the use of voice-overs, but Charlene pointed out that it was really a character study, and as such she didn't need to like the characters or necessarily care about the resolution of their conflict. She's right, I never ended up actually liking the characters of Marion or Jack, but in a way that gave me the distance to both laugh at them, but to see the compounding of the language and cultural differences played very well as a simile for all of those issues in relationships that we keep hidden because it's easier than trying to explain them.