BEFORE: It's finally here, the end of Romance Chain 2019, after spreading out of February and into March, getting extended a couple of times - but there was a good reason for that. I've got my eyes on April and things lining up there the way I want them to, and I'm hoping that lining up April doesn't make things more difficult in July. I'll explain this later.
For now, Diane Lane is my outro to other topics, and in away she almost had to be, because there are only two Hollywood actors in this film, and very few in yesterday's film, so if it weren't her it would have to be Alec Baldwin or Sandra Oh, but another film with Diane Lane tomorrow will set up a week's worth of films with one actor, which will get me all the way to "Aquaman" and then "Captain Marvel". Again, I'll explain later.
THE PLOT: The wife of a successful movie producer takes a car trip from the south of France to Paris with one of her husband's associates.
AFTER: Knowing that this was directed by the wife of Francis Ford Coppola might lead to the question, how personal is this story? Was Eleanor Coppola ever on a road trip with one of her husband's associates, who tried to romance her along the way? I suppose it's possible. I watched one film already this year directed by a Coppola (Roman, director of "A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan") so now I also wonder what it's like to know that your mother directed a better movie than you did...and she was 80 years old when she did it!
Admittedly, the romance is more of a sub-plot here, at least for most of the picture - so this is the way Romance Chain 2019 ends, not with a bang but a whimper, and a big question mark. At first it seems possible that Jacques' offer to drive Anne Lockwood to Paris is quite sincere, for the sake of convenience, and that he has no ulterior motive in mind. But, don't forget that he's a French man, and stereotypically we know that French people have a somewhat different definition of fidelity, and that affairs sort of happen spontaneously, and aren't that much of a big deal to them. But Americans seem to take these sort of things more seriously, so he finds that he's got to up his game if he wants to seduce Anne.
My question, though, then becomes - what if he were successful? What are the implications of sleeping with your business partner's wife? Wouldn't that make it awkward for them to work together? Or is Jacques just not thinking that far ahead? So they take the long, circuitous route to Paris, going through Provence, Lyon (in Rhone-Alpes) and Burgundy. I don't have the map of French provinces memorized, so honestly I couldn't tell how winding Jacques' chosen route was. Now that I've checked, it seems like a direct route from Cannes to Paris, it's just the fact that he wanted to make so many stops that was slowing them down. My phone is now telling me this should be an 8-hour car trip, and one almost HAS to go through Lyon, so the route was good, but still took them over 2 days when you factor in all the sightseeing, picnicking and gratuitous flirting.
My personal point of reference here is our vacation 2018, which was a BBQ Crawl from Dallas to Nashville, and those cities are 664 miles apart, just about 100 miles further than the distance from Cannes to Paris. And it took us 5 days, of course we planned each stop along the way to last a day or two so we could eat the local cuisine of Little Rock, Memphis, etc. and get a feel for each town. But I can see how easily a half-day's car trip can turn into a much longer journey when you add in so many stops.
Again, it's a fine line here between for-sure flirting and just making general dinner conversations, which could easily include compliments, dressing up to eat at a fancy restaurant, etc. So you could take this film two ways - either Jacques is just being polite as they slowly make their way toward Paris, or he totally wants to get with Anne, he just can't be overt about that. It's not really 100% clear until the end of the film, and even then, it's left open-ended enough that the audience sort of needs to decide what they would want to see happen next. Yes, married people obviously do flirt, or at least get flirted with, and one could say it would be rude not to flirt back. As for the question of whether that's healthy or unhealthy for their marriage, it's a bit like leaning back in a chair and balancing on the back two legs. If you lean back too far then you'll fall over, but if you don't lean back at all, then you're just sitting in the chair. So a little is probably OK, just not too much.
Perhaps a sequel is warranted, and Jacques even laid out where their next road trip should take them, so what is Eleanor Coppola waiting for? There could be a whole trilogy here, like the "Before Sunrise" films. A nice little drive from San Francisco through Napa Valley, call it "Seattle Can Wait", let's get going on that.
This film also calls to mind the Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon "The Trip To..." series, where they visited Northern England, Italy and Spain ostensibly to review restaurants, but really functioned as a story about a couple of mates bonding during a trip and figuring out whose Michael Caine impression was better. "Paris Can Wait" is a bit about a possible romance, but also it's about the food, and the sights along the way. Spending time with any other person opens up the opportunities for bonding with them, and how much anyone reveals about their inner thoughts and personal setbacks certainly plays a part in all that.
Also starring Alec Baldwin (last seen in "Mission: Impossible - Fallout"), Arnaud Viard, Elise Tielrooy, Laure Sineux and the voice of Elodie Navarre
RATING: 5 out of 10 chocolate roses
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