Pot Luck

Breezy but enjoyable ensemble piece about a diverse group of students sharing an apartment in Barcelona. The focus of the movie is Xavier (Duris), a twenty-something economics student who is promised a steady civil service job with the French Ministry of Finance, if he is able to get though a year's crash course in Spanish economics. Promising his girlfriend, the uptight Martine (Tautou), that he'll be back as soon as possible, Xavier moves to Barcelona and into an apartment shared by a diverse group of fellow students, hailing from all over Europe. Soon the aloof and withdrawn Xavier finds himself coming out of his shell and absorbing the cultural influences around him. Romantic entanglements also emerge in the shape of a shy and unhappily married woman (Judith Godreche).

Klapisch makes no secret of the fact that the housemates and their chaotic place of dwelling is a thinly veiled metaphor for the European community itself. However, Pot Luck, despite the occasional slip up, isn't driven by an unwavering political belief. Instead this is a light-hearted, benevolent comedy drama about acceptance and identity. Sure, there's a little bit of stereotyping - is every single German person uptight and obsessed by details? - but Pot Luck is fairly agreeable stuff.