The genre, if it can be called that, is geriatric screwball comedy. Not enticing, though the premise held some promise: a trip to Paris to revitalize a tired 30-year-old marriage. Unfortunately for all concerned, including the audience, once Mr. and Mrs. Burrows get off the Eurostar train from London, everything goes wrong, for them and for the film.
Nick (Jim Broadbent) and Meg (Lindsay Duncan) are at no point sympathetic characters, nor is their marriage believable. The simplest way to relay the movie's failure is to catalog its many flaws, which is a list of implausibilities. Start with their home life: (1) Nick is dismissed as a professor because he suggested one of his students spend more time on her studies than her hair. Fired? Really? Even academia is not that petty. Anyway, as result, they are all but penniless in Paris. (2) Their marriage is so sexless that at one point he crawls toward her begging just to smell her crotch. (3) They refer to their children in the plural, but the only offspring that emerges in the plot is a derelict son who phones for money. Why two children if the plot only calls for one? Answer: lazy writing. (4) He had an affair years ago, and she's still punishing him for it-- sometimes. Other times, she buys him art books they can't afford. She is the very definition of fickle, while he's a grizzled Lloyd Dobler ("Say Anything").
Then there's Paris: (5) She hates the inexpensive Montmartre hotel room he booked-- her entire objection: "It's beige"-- and so flees for a taxi, with him rushing after shouting "Don't do this, Meg!" They drive around, meter ticking, until she sees the Plaza Athenee, one of Paris's most luxurious hotels--at least $700 per night. (6) He vandalizes the room by pasting mementos to a wall. (7) They run into an old friend of his (Jeff Goldblum with his signature quirks) who of course happens to be rich, so he can bail them out of their idiotic and expensive mistakes, such as (8) Casual scofflaws, they run from paying their bills at a restaurant, and at the Plaza Athenee.
I could go on, but recalling the flaws is as tedious as watching them in the first place. Broadbent and Duncan are fine in their roles, but Nick and Meg are inconsistent and often embarrassing to watch. Writer Kureishi and director Michell seem to want to have it both ways-- a comedy with a broken heart-- but there is little humor, and no heart.
Nick (Jim Broadbent) and Meg (Lindsay Duncan) are at no point sympathetic characters, nor is their marriage believable. The simplest way to relay the movie's failure is to catalog its many flaws, which is a list of implausibilities. Start with their home life: (1) Nick is dismissed as a professor because he suggested one of his students spend more time on her studies than her hair. Fired? Really? Even academia is not that petty. Anyway, as result, they are all but penniless in Paris. (2) Their marriage is so sexless that at one point he crawls toward her begging just to smell her crotch. (3) They refer to their children in the plural, but the only offspring that emerges in the plot is a derelict son who phones for money. Why two children if the plot only calls for one? Answer: lazy writing. (4) He had an affair years ago, and she's still punishing him for it-- sometimes. Other times, she buys him art books they can't afford. She is the very definition of fickle, while he's a grizzled Lloyd Dobler ("Say Anything").
Then there's Paris: (5) She hates the inexpensive Montmartre hotel room he booked-- her entire objection: "It's beige"-- and so flees for a taxi, with him rushing after shouting "Don't do this, Meg!" They drive around, meter ticking, until she sees the Plaza Athenee, one of Paris's most luxurious hotels--at least $700 per night. (6) He vandalizes the room by pasting mementos to a wall. (7) They run into an old friend of his (Jeff Goldblum with his signature quirks) who of course happens to be rich, so he can bail them out of their idiotic and expensive mistakes, such as (8) Casual scofflaws, they run from paying their bills at a restaurant, and at the Plaza Athenee.
I could go on, but recalling the flaws is as tedious as watching them in the first place. Broadbent and Duncan are fine in their roles, but Nick and Meg are inconsistent and often embarrassing to watch. Writer Kureishi and director Michell seem to want to have it both ways-- a comedy with a broken heart-- but there is little humor, and no heart.