Relationships are complicated but so is the ending of 2 days in Paris
"It always fascinates me how people go from loving you madly to nothing at all. It hurts so much," Marion (Julie Delpy) confesses to the audience in a private monologue, towards the end of the movie 2 Days in Paris. As she confesses, a scene unfolds until the camera pans in on Jack (Adam Goldberg) who is seated across from her, shirtless with tattoos on his shoulders, slumped on a chair. So many tears, mine included as I sobbed quietly but in complete agreement with the scene.
Love stories are hard. They are hard to watch, hard to hear about and worst of all hard to experience. I detest the genre of rom-coms and "chic-flics" because they never acknowledge the actual work that goes into sustaining a relationship. I hate them because they offer archetypes and cut-out templates of lovers which in times of deep loneliness and sorrow offer false comfort. And then once you recover, you've somehow internalized these archetypes and used the endings of these movies to fuel your romantic life. You begin to rebuild yourself by seeking comfort in their unusual and shallow happy endings. In those moments of deep sadness its hard to notice how the director when writing the script, would much rather there be a misunderstanding and moments of sullen walks in the rain (followed by passionate forgiveness sex) than a long, hard and painful conversation between two lovers. Its also easy to think that after all that sullen rain walking going to back to the lesser and unsatisfying relationship the movie was building out prior, is a way better option for the protagonist. These terrible movies instead idealize the happiness that comes from being in a partnerships and demonizes the suffering that comes from not being in them. You, the sad viewer, also miss the fact that there is only one singular misunderstanding and one singular resolution before the couple lives happily ever after. This happily ever after is usually one of three options- engagement, marriage, children. Oh, I forgot sometimes its all of them because somehow even in the 21st century that is the cure for a case of love failure.
Film plot
Jack and Marion, a two-year old couple, take a trip to Paris after a holiday in Venice to visit Marion's parents. They live upstairs and Jack gets uncomfortably close (physically and metaphorically) to Marion's life before him and outside of him in Paris. Jack who is playing an American tourist and Marion a French native depict beautifully the discomforts of an inter-racial relationship. The inordinate amount of trust, the communication troubles, the social cues and most of all the novelty of dating a foreigner are all played out in the movie by Jack and Marion, Marion's sister, Marion's family and even her friends.
In 2 Days in Paris, Delpy (also the director) very carefully, like brush strokes to darken a shade on a canvas, paints the misunderstandings repeatedly with more color and force. At first as if by accident, when no one is looking, she place a small disagreement into the plot. And then over the course of the movie, she reinforces it subtly with what appear to be unrelated details and digressions- which they are not. This I admire most because its how things work in real life, no one notices the first specks of discomfort until its time to spring clean.
Delphy almost always plays the role of a French woman in the movies she picks so I suppose she only gets better playing the part. Unfortunately I don't know if her representations are true because I am not French myself. However, I do know what its like to play up the nuances of a different culture for an American and English speaking audience. In addition to your external persona, you also need to play this thin (or sometimes thick) layer of a third culture persona that you adopt when you move to a new country. She plays that strange blend of trying to stay authentic to your native culture and also the parts where you are trying to fit in to a new culture so that your novelty won't make everyone else in the room uncomfortable, extremely well. I recognize its slightly reversed in the film because Jack is the one playing the stereotyped clueless and perpetually uncomfortable American in Europe. However the emphasis in the film felt like it was more on Delphy, the hopeless but flawed romantic, despite Jack being the unusually patient and reasonable boyfriend. I want to point out that Jack does't rely on his man strength nor does he on the age-old wisdom of "women are so complicated" as a cop out in the film when he plays boyfriend. Instead he confronts her, confronts himself, confronts feelings and keeps the discussion open. He includes the audience into his inner workings just as much as any other female character in a romantic film.
"Here it is one more, one less, another wasted love story," Marion continues in that same scene.
Verdict
I found it to be a refreshing romantic and comedic film. I wouldn't lump it into the genre because there is a lot of garbage out there and this isn't quite golden because there was still some room for character development. But maybe that's why there is a sequel (to develop Jack's character maybe?). It is definetly a silver medal worthy film that I recommend to you regardless your location in the relationship/dating cycle of life.
Plot: A +
Representation of women AND men: A for accurate
Identity politics: there is always room for complaints (all white cast and only heterosexual relationships, womp womp womp!)
Casting: B
Cinematography: A+
Love stories are hard. They are hard to watch, hard to hear about and worst of all hard to experience. I detest the genre of rom-coms and "chic-flics" because they never acknowledge the actual work that goes into sustaining a relationship. I hate them because they offer archetypes and cut-out templates of lovers which in times of deep loneliness and sorrow offer false comfort. And then once you recover, you've somehow internalized these archetypes and used the endings of these movies to fuel your romantic life. You begin to rebuild yourself by seeking comfort in their unusual and shallow happy endings. In those moments of deep sadness its hard to notice how the director when writing the script, would much rather there be a misunderstanding and moments of sullen walks in the rain (followed by passionate forgiveness sex) than a long, hard and painful conversation between two lovers. Its also easy to think that after all that sullen rain walking going to back to the lesser and unsatisfying relationship the movie was building out prior, is a way better option for the protagonist. These terrible movies instead idealize the happiness that comes from being in a partnerships and demonizes the suffering that comes from not being in them. You, the sad viewer, also miss the fact that there is only one singular misunderstanding and one singular resolution before the couple lives happily ever after. This happily ever after is usually one of three options- engagement, marriage, children. Oh, I forgot sometimes its all of them because somehow even in the 21st century that is the cure for a case of love failure.
Jack and Marion, a two-year old couple, take a trip to Paris after a holiday in Venice to visit Marion's parents. They live upstairs and Jack gets uncomfortably close (physically and metaphorically) to Marion's life before him and outside of him in Paris. Jack who is playing an American tourist and Marion a French native depict beautifully the discomforts of an inter-racial relationship. The inordinate amount of trust, the communication troubles, the social cues and most of all the novelty of dating a foreigner are all played out in the movie by Jack and Marion, Marion's sister, Marion's family and even her friends.
In 2 Days in Paris, Delpy (also the director) very carefully, like brush strokes to darken a shade on a canvas, paints the misunderstandings repeatedly with more color and force. At first as if by accident, when no one is looking, she place a small disagreement into the plot. And then over the course of the movie, she reinforces it subtly with what appear to be unrelated details and digressions- which they are not. This I admire most because its how things work in real life, no one notices the first specks of discomfort until its time to spring clean.
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| image credits : Bonjour Paris |
At first when I watched the trailer, I found it ridiculously cliche and so on the nose- another love story in Paris, with an American man- UGH, next! This was a few days ago and then after an eventful day I just wanted to watch something, anything to relax my mind. I always struggle with Amazon Prime, it doesn't have the best selection of things to watch. As the opening scene rolled in and I heard a narration (the private monologue Marion has with the audience) in addition to the dialogues in the film, I was hooked. I thoroughly enjoyed the raw, abrupt and messy cinematography of the film. Not all of them were pristine, some of the shots were awkward, they were too close or too far and cut certain parts and people out. It felt like I was reading someone's diary where I was seeing the world only through their description, fully aware of a world that exists in the spaces the writer has not included. I enjoyed that because that's what romantic relationships feel like at first.
Delphy almost always plays the role of a French woman in the movies she picks so I suppose she only gets better playing the part. Unfortunately I don't know if her representations are true because I am not French myself. However, I do know what its like to play up the nuances of a different culture for an American and English speaking audience. In addition to your external persona, you also need to play this thin (or sometimes thick) layer of a third culture persona that you adopt when you move to a new country. She plays that strange blend of trying to stay authentic to your native culture and also the parts where you are trying to fit in to a new culture so that your novelty won't make everyone else in the room uncomfortable, extremely well. I recognize its slightly reversed in the film because Jack is the one playing the stereotyped clueless and perpetually uncomfortable American in Europe. However the emphasis in the film felt like it was more on Delphy, the hopeless but flawed romantic, despite Jack being the unusually patient and reasonable boyfriend. I want to point out that Jack does't rely on his man strength nor does he on the age-old wisdom of "women are so complicated" as a cop out in the film when he plays boyfriend. Instead he confronts her, confronts himself, confronts feelings and keeps the discussion open. He includes the audience into his inner workings just as much as any other female character in a romantic film.
"Here it is one more, one less, another wasted love story," Marion continues in that same scene.
Verdict
I found it to be a refreshing romantic and comedic film. I wouldn't lump it into the genre because there is a lot of garbage out there and this isn't quite golden because there was still some room for character development. But maybe that's why there is a sequel (to develop Jack's character maybe?). It is definetly a silver medal worthy film that I recommend to you regardless your location in the relationship/dating cycle of life.
Plot: A +
Representation of women AND men: A for accurate
Identity politics: there is always room for complaints (all white cast and only heterosexual relationships, womp womp womp!)
Casting: B
Cinematography: A+
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