By Linda Winsh-Bolard
Marion and Jack had spent two years together and are now taking vacation in Europe hoping to renew the romance.
Vienna was nice, Venice albeit brought diarrhea and endless stream of pictures taken by Jack anywhere and of anything except his beloved who is growing more annoyed by a minute.
The last two days are to be spend in Paris visiting Marion's parents who lent the couple an upstairs room in their home.
It is here that the film takes off, a pall mall of fast edited parties, people and inane actions that seem to stretch a lot longer than a mere two days. Add the amount of cultural oddities, behavioral problems and chance meetings, and this is one heck of two days.
The problems start to raise their manly heads at the first party's discovery: Marion had other boyfriends, and at least one of them received the same sexual praise as Jack. Jack is upset, Marion surprised: You knew I was not a virgin when we met. I was 33.
Yes, he knew but Jack embodies the all American male, he believes in private property, terrorism, free enterprise and being alpha male. Now, amazed, he seems to find out that Marion perceives most of his beliefs as small bourgeoisie hypocrisy.
Marion's father paints and his work is explicit, her mother had an affair with Jim Morrison. Jack is as amused by both as he is by the uncertainty whether or not Marion actually left all those boyfriends behind.
Marion in Paris shocks him, as much as Parisian food, customs and life do. As he speaks no French, his observations are annoyingly obvious. On the other hand, Marion suddenly feels constrained by what for two years seemed natural. She causes scenes, screams, fights and generally is a different person, and as odd as Jack.
This hidden personality of lovers, the slow revealing of all that is living in drawers of all relationships, seems to be what Delpy was after. It shows clearly in the last scene when Marion confronts Jack with: You don't know anything about me. Likewise, Marion seemed to know little about Jack before the revealing trip.
The film is all Delpy: lead role, script, directing, editing, music scoring- all of it is hers. With such freedom to chose, she chose an old vehicle for her message, revelation by traveling starts with Gulliver, and relied way too much on narration to tell what she wants to say, while hurrying the action up by fast edited close ups too often. It gets boring how fast all that nothingness passes by only to dissolve into yet another high strung scene between Marion and Jack. Relationships often dissolve in scenes, but rarely is one of the partners always on the brink of hysteria, while the other is paranoid about being different.
Also Goldberg, despite Delpy's prominence in making of the movie, stole the film from her because, strangely, Marion does not come across as the subject of the story. Jack does, while Marion becomes object of his investigation-which reveals little about him to the audience and less to himself. Marion gets sudden understanding of love affairs at the end, but that is too late to do anything for her character in the film.
This is a "love story" in other words, the other characters are there just to serve the interaction between the lovers. Delpy's real parents, both are professional actors, are charming in their supporting parts as somewhat bewildered parents of a daughter in an international relationship, but their parts are small and not truly believable. It really is a very long time since the first American arrived to the very cosmopolitan Parisian artist community.
One would hope that the ambiguity we are left with at the end was intentional, perhaps mirroring the ambiguity we have to live with where the past of our own partners is involved, yet since the question is asked: are these two able to live with each other just as they are? With all the faults, all the annoyance and the unending surprises forever revealing themselves in their, and any, relationship?
Written and directed by Julie Delpy, Starring: Julie Delpy, Adam Goldberg, Daniel Bruhl, Marie Pillet, Albert Delpy, Aleksia Landeau, Adan Jodorowsky, Alexandre Nahon, Camera: Lubomir Bakchev, Music and editing by Julie Delpy.
