Paris Can Wait

"Paris Can Wait” stars Diane Lane, Arnaud Viard and Alec Baldwin (who appears for about 30 seconds)  in this movie written and directed by Eleanor Coppola via the vehicle of her husband, Francis Ford Coppola’s production company,  Zoetrope.  I mention the matrimonial  ties between the producer and the writer/director because ,were it not for that, I doubt if any other film producer would invest in such a project. The film is thin both in terms of substance and character development and, quite simply, is nothing more than a view of French scenery on  a road trip to Paris with gourmet dining along the way. As with most French specialty dishes, the presentation is more appealing than the amount of food to be digested and the analogy applies to this film as well. How many plates of appetizing food and rare wines can one member of the audience absorb in the 92 minutes it takes for the couple to arrive at their destination. Ms. Lane and Mr. Viard are fine actors and do their best with the limited material given them but, unfortunately, the audience, like Ms. Lane’s character, would have wanted the trip to Paris to have been faster and with fewer gastronomical stops. I give this film  1 star  with a suggestion that theaters offer free Tums or Rolaids with each ticket. Better still, just as “Paris Can Wait’, the viewer might be advised to do so too, at least until the film is ultimately exhibited on TV (if a non-Coppola entity will air it).

The Lovers

“The Lovers” was written and directed by Azalia Jacobs and stars Debra Winger and Tracy Letts in this film about marital infidelity and how the acts of each spouse impact upon the other. This is a film with characters who have no depth and superficially occupy the screen in their trysts and cheating adventures but never really come to terms with who they are and what transpired between them in the years prior to their extra curricular activities. I found the writing to be lacking and since the writer and director were one and the same person, the valuable and objective 3d party input and good judgment that might have been available just wasn’t there.  More fitting as a short story instead of a full length feature film, I give the movie 2 and ½ stars with the return of Ms. Winger in any vehicle worth the price of admission.