If you're seeking an acerbic, warts-and-all demystification of an overly romanticized European capital, seek elsewhere. (Julie Delpy's just-released 2 Days in Paris is a good place to start.) Christophe Honoré's misleadingly-titled Dans Paris (Inside Paris) isn't out to expose anything beyond the romantic and existential travails of two implausibly gorgeous Gallic brothers. The film pays whimsical, jazzy tribute to French New Wave narrative tropes and to the type of guys who attempt suicide first and complain about "grossly underestimating our sorrow" later.
As storytelling, Dans Paris never quite coheres, but it merits attention by pairing the two most appealing young actors in France — or at least the two who seem to appear most frequently on these shores — for the first time. Louis Garrel, who plays the
seductive, freewheeling younger sibling, bears a striking resemblance to Stolen Kisses-era Jean-Pierre Leaud in both body and spirit, and as such he projects the essence of French cinema's heyday with effortless charm. (It's no shock that his two most prominent roles to date — in The Dreamers and Regular Lovers — are both '60s-era period pieces.) But Romain Duris is the real talent here; his Paul is a laconic layabout, on twenty-four-hour bedrest in his father's tiny flat following a bitter breakup, but even his weariness burns with intensity.
Dans Paris seems disappointingly modest when you consider the talent at the film's disposal. Honoré is aiming for a slacker riff on Franny and Zooey — as evidenced by one brother's choice of post-coital reading material — but the onscreen ennui lacks any philosophical or social context. The few moments that do linger seem completely off-the-cuff: Duris' nostalgic bedroom karaoke session with Kim Wilde's "Cambodia," and Garrel's Jules et Jim-esque jaunt with a former flame both guide their hazy characters into momentary focus. — Akiva Gottlieb
