Eleanor Coppola (the 80-year-old mother of Sofia and wife of Francis), is best known for her cracking documentary Hearts of Darkness, charting the behind the scenes madness of Apocalypse Now. Whilst that doc rocked, this rom-com road-trip is a pretty tiresome trek, unless you’re with the French tourist board, in which case you’ll love this advert for holidaying in the land of wine and cheese.
Alec Baldwin plays a movie producer whose wife (Diane Lane) can’t fly, so has to car share from Cannes to Paris with one her husband’s business buddies (Arnaud Viard). Cue dollops of postcard-worthy scenery, mouth-watering meals and bottles of plonk.
Love Diane Lane? Then you’ll likely delight in the very Diane Lane-ness of a performance that holds no surprises, but doesn’t disappoint. Baldwin’s appearances are brief but ever so Alec Baldwin-y. Viard plays a suave, charming French dude, educating Lane’s ignorant American to the sensual delights of all things French.
If you like your comedy light, your actors reliably playing to type, your script safe, your story upbeat, and your landscapes lush, then here’s a tale so old, archaeologists should carbon date the script. Every cliché about French culture, cuisine and romance is here, wrapped up in a garland of garlic, and wearing a beret perched at a jaunty angle.
Predictable, safe, slow, and inoffensive, it’s a fun rehash of the popular but excruciating Marigold Hotel variety. Nicely played by the two leads, with France looking très bon, if romantic whimsy’s your thing, you’ll have fun. If not? Well, Paris really can wait.
