Paris, the Movie

Haven't posted for awhile, but now that I'm back in my routine (teach all morning, watch movies while working out at the gym at noon), I'll get back into this. I had low/no expectations for this movie. Name a movie after a city, and you usually end up with a travelogue of pretty shots and minimal plot. I was happily surprised by this movie. Binoche, as usual, offers a performance that suggests more than the words her character utters. Mélanie Laurent (of Inglorious Bastards fame) steals scenes, but the real heart of this movie (pun intended) is Romaine Duris, the (perhaps) dying brother. Like Crash did (less successfully) several years ago, this movie follows three seemingly disparate subplots through Paris (but much less preachy than Crash, and when they do intersect, it doesn't seem quite as forced as in that movie). Paris isn't the star here, until the final scene (I'll leave it there), but instead it's the stage where three stories develop. Not Citizen Kane, but a hell of lot more entertaining and moving than I expected.