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When idea of this meeting between two people germinated in the mind of French director Danielle Thompson, it was aimed at the American market as a love story between an American man and a Frenchwoman. But the studios' requests were numerous, altering the course of the story. So the project was dropped until she took over the story again, not only as a screenwriter but also as a director. In the process, she sold the rights to Miramax. The result? The subtlety of Danielle Thompson and her son co-screenwriter Christopher Thompson's universe can be found in the appealing scenario of this sparkling comedy. While the dialogues are finely written and funny, the innovation of Thompson's second feature after the comedy La Bûche lies in the three principal protagonists of the film: Rose, Felix and Roissy Airport, which officiates like a character: sometimes active, sometimes passive. The main scenes are set in terminal F, a hotel and a bar. Airports are at the same time swarming with people and "no man's land". Loneliness is palpable in this place filled with bookstores, barbershops, gift shops, restaurants and bakeries. The travelers who pass in front of Thompson's camera are the witnesses of this "nowhere" which takes them somewhere else. Rose is one of those wandering souls. Her character, a slightly bimbo and corny but always beautiful aesthetician is very well written. The filmmaker even invented a past for Rose, in the form of a novel, to allow Juliette Binoche to build her character. Rose has a big heart masked under her excessive make-up. Her numerous accessories reveal her personality and yet, it's without her make-up in a hotel room that she will rediscover herself. She is stuck between her violent, disrespectful and jealous boyfriend (played by a stunning Sergi Lopez), her mother who spends most the time blackmailing her with suicide, and invasive girlfriends. Rose is in transit, at one moment of her life, just like Felix. One of the themes of the film is the question of what happens when one has the courage to leave? Felix is out of line, vulnerable, in permanent exile. Sensitive, maniacal, obsessed with odors, suffering from epilepsy, he is at a moment of his life where he must accept his past to go ahead. When we see Felix in the hotel kitchen, preparing an unforgettable meal for Rose, one cannot help thinking of Lino Ventura, a similar actor both very physical and sensitive. Danielle Thompson may have been unconsciously inspired by the actor, also a friend of her father Gerard Oury. One understands the pleasure that Juliette Binoche and Jean Réno took in playing characters that contrast with their usual roles. The director has a gift to cast actors against-type. While Jean Reno is accustomed to comedy (Wasabi, The Visitors, Just Visiting), Juliette Binoche is a virgin in that genre. Here she shows that she can also be funny without overacting and-finally—isn't confronted with a tragedy at the end of the film. This new onscreen duo is surprising and exciting. Because the magic of a romantic comedy lies in the osmosis between the actors, it's all about charm whenever they are together. However, the last third of film, where the two are separated, is flat and far-fetched. One would have preferred to stay in their hotel room, where the game of seduction is at a high. Nothing really happens (unlike in the recent Mademoiselle) but tension fills the room. Also problematic, Eric Serra's score is repetitive and not very inventive. The only songs that work well here are the ones borrowed from somewhere or someone else: a cut from the Midnight Cowboy soundtrack melancholically accompanies a sad Rose on a walkway and Macy Gray's "I Try" illustrates Rose's smile as she takes a taxi toward happiness. One will also notice as how Thompson shows cell phones as true links between the lovers, from beginning to end. French romantic comedies are rare. Americans have mastered the genre since the 20's with classics such as It Happened One Night, The Way We Were to An Affair to Remember, a long tradition was established. But where US screenwriters and directors often go for silliness and sentimentalism, Frenchies sprinkle it with hardness and cynicism. So try boarding this French plane of humor and love.
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