Paris-Manhattan

I've a theory that there's a far better version of Paris – Manhattan out there somewhere. In what looks like a story savagely edited down, cutting out possibly everything that was good about it, this French comedy/Woody Allen homage is a disaster.

Pharmacist Alice (Taglioni) is obsessed with Woody Allen, going as far as prescribing her customers with DVDs of his movies as a cure to their ailments. Evenings are spent gazing at his poster, which offers spiritual, philosophical and love advice (culled from lines from Allen’s films, just like Bogart did in Allen’s 1972 comedy Play It Again, Sam). But when Alice runs into alarm installer Victor (Bruel), Alice for once has to look to herself and not the writer-director on how to approach romance.

Sounds like a good movie, right? Slight but cute and frothy, yeah? Well, it might have been if it didn't dedicate a lot of its tight running time (72 minutes is barely feature length) into subplots that crop up but are never followed through on, and what they have to do with the main story remains a total mystery. Sister Heléne (Delterme) believes that her daughter is dating a drug dealer because she has been seeing him for a year and they have not met him. Plus he drives an SUV. Sure signs, both. Then there’s the fear that Heléne's hubby (de Lencquesaing) is having an affair, which is just an excuse to get Alice and Victor together for a spying mission. Oh, and it turns out Alice's mother likes to drink too much. None of this is interesting and I'm sorry you had to read about it, but this is the movie as presented.

The film clips along with short-short scenes setting a quick pace, but it soon becomes obvious that it's only moving so quickly because scenes are missing. Sequences too. For example, there's a scene where Alice's elderly patrons encourage her to go get her man, which cues up the expected last-minute dash, and it's only then that the pharmacy and its customers are supposed to be sprinkled with the same quirky magic Jeunet pulled off with Amelie's café. This whole set up is missing, however.

So the theory remains – a better movie of Paris – Manhattan exists but unfortunately it's this one here that has to be reviewed.